Taking Over
by Akabara-sama
Summary: Waking up in the body of Naruto Uzumaki was not something he had ever thought was possible, so when he woke up in the body of a four year old Naruto he has to find out what to do and how to do it. AU, not SI, Pairing undecided(No Yaoi)
1. I am

AN: This will be an AU, in what ways will become clear over time as the changes I have in mind are revealed. (no beta and English is my second language and I suck at spotting my own errors, so sorry for any and all mistakes)

Chapter One – I am

 **I am, I am – Stronger than before**

 **I am, I am more**

 **I am, I am – Ready to go on**

 **I am**

Waking up he felt groggy like there was a dense fog in his mind preventing him from thinking clearly, sitting up he noticed that he was feeling cold but also that his body felt different then to what he was used to.

It took him several minutes to get the fog to lift from his mind, and he immediately took note of his surroundings, he was in an alleyway between two houses, surrounded by what looked and smelled like trash bags.

He was sitting on something between a duvet and a mattress, and then he noticed how small his legs, arms, and body was, he just stared down at his body for a while before pinching his own cheek, giving a yelp from the pain, making him realize that no, he was not dreaming.

He was wearing worn trousers and a t-shirt in navy blue with tears and holes in them, he had nothing on his feet, and he noticed that both his skin and clothes looked like it needed a good wash, well the clothes looked more like it needed to be replaced.

Standing up and looking around to find out where he was, his surroundings told him nothing and being in the body of a small child confused the hell out of him, so taking a few calming breaths he headed out of the alleyway.

Looking around the mostly empty streets, he could only see three people from where he exited, he looked around to see if he could spot anything that would tell him something about where he was, finding no identifiable landmarks he decided to make a beeline for the nearest person in the streets. Coming up behind them he spoke up getting surprised by his voice, cause that was most definitely not his voice.

''Ex- excuse me, could you tell me where I am'' He almost stumbled his question due to being surprised by his own voice, but he managed to get his question out.

''How can you not know that you are in Konoha'' The man he had walked up to responded as he turned around when the man looked down and saw who had asked him, different facial expression flickered over his face, before settling in a disdainful scowl.

''Go away, and don't bother me ever again'' The man said before turning away and walking away at a fast walking pace.

He froze, for two different reasons, when he heard the name Konoha his mind immediately went to the famous village from the Manga Naruto, of which he was a fan, but then the expression the man had made towards him registered and he started going through why he would look and act like that towards him, but the only answer that made sense from what he recalled from the manga, if he was indeed in that Konoha would be if he was in the body of Naruto Uzumaki, but there was no way that was the case, right?

Making a decision to find out where he was he started running along the street, noticing how the few adults that were around, making him realize it was probably morning, were sending him hateful, disdainful or disapproving looks, making him more certain that he was in the body of Naruto, if he was indeed in Konoha.

After running for almost 10 minutes he arrived at a large street that passed from the large outer walls of the village straight down the center, looking towards the center of the village, he saw a sight he had never believed he would experience, the village of Konoha unfolded before his eyes with four different but recognizable heads carved into the mountain in the background.

He just stared at the mountain as thousands of thoughts started going through his head, why was he here? How was he here? was he really in the body of Naruto? Was the strange feeling in his body from chakra? What did it mean that he was here? Those questions and many, many more filtered through his head to the point when his eyesight started to get black spots when he realized he had started to hyperventilate.

Walking to the side of the street he lay down and tried to calm himself and his breathing, when he had managed to accomplish both he stood up once more, he noticed that the street was getting a lot busier, which also meant a lot more people were sending him looks or ignoring him.

Deciding to clarify if he had become Naruto Uzumaki or not, he walked towards the nearest surface which he could see his own reflection in, he just stared at his own reflection for a while as he started contemplating what he could and should do as he looked at the reflection of a thin child who looked to be around four, with blond hair, distinct whisker marks, and azure blue eyes.

He started going through what he remembered from the manga and hoped he could use the knowledge in the situation he found himself in, so he started going over what he knew about Naruto Uzumaki.

-Born the 10th of October, the day Kyuubi or Kurama as he was named had been unleashed on the city before being sealed into Naruto.

Parents: Kushina Uzumaki of the Uzumaki clan, former host of Kurama, was Naruto's mother, Minato Namikaze, Fourth Hokage, was Naruto's father.

\- Had a huge chakra reserve due to both being an Uzumaki and being the host of Kurama

\- Had Wind chakra affinity

\- He was and would be hated or despised by most of the village.

\- He had no friends, relatives or friendly relations at this stage in his life besides maybe the third Hokage.

\- The Akatsuki was or would be out to collect Kurama, putting his and Kurama's life in danger.

With that information in mind, he started thinking about what he could do get ahead if he remembered correctly the teachers in the ninja academy had either done nothing or tried to sabotage, Naruto's attempt at becoming a ninja.

That meant that if he wanted to be a better ninja in Naruto's earlier years, he needed to get a head start and to get a head start he needed two things. First, he needed to learn to manipulate and use his chakra and secondly he needed to learn the shadow close technique.

With that thought in mind he went over all the training exercises he remembered from the series and if he remembered correctly the shadow clone technique only had a single hand seal, and it was the chakra required to use it and the lethal consequence it could have if you did not have enough of it that made it a higher ranked technique.

With the start of a plan in mind he shook his head as his sight came back into focus as he had been zoning out, he took off in a run excitement rushing through him as he thought of all the things he would get to see and do as Naruto went through his mind, he started searching for a training ground or just an area where there was no one, so he could get started on his plan.

Xx-xX

Hours later, around noon if the sun high in the sky was an indication, Naruto, as he had decided to think of himself as to avoid not reacting when people called his name, was lying in the grass on a field sweating with his stomach letting him know that food was something he needed.

He had found out that getting a feel for his chakra was way harder than he had hoped it would be, he could sort of feel that it was there, but he had not found a way to do anything with it yet. With his stomach giving stab of pain from hunger, he made up his mind to go find some food, standing up, he started towards the village was he started thinking over how to get some food.

He had no idea where Naruto lived at this age, but if the conditions he had woken up under said anything, then that was not an option for food anyway, which meant he had limited options to get food, he could beg, but that was unlikely to work, with the way the populace treated him, he could try and steal something, but that was almost guaranteed to get him into trouble seeing as he was in a village of ninjas, or he could try and find someone who could help him, but the only person that came to mind for that was the third Hokage, seeing as Naruto probably was not yet on friendly terms with Teuchi and Ayume at Ichiraku.

With only one decent option he could come up with Naruto started heading towards the back of the city near the monuments of the Hokages were carved in the mountain, he hoped that this was where the current Hokage had his office.

It took him far longer than he wanted to find it and get there, especially with the stabs of hunger, though they had started to go away after around half an hour had passed in his estimation, walking into the reception room that was below the Hokage's office, he walked to the desk where a middle-aged woman was sitting going through some papers.

''Excuse me, could I talk to the Hokage when he has time'' Naruto asked, getting the attention of what he assumed was the Hokage's secretary.

She looked up from her papers before zeroing in on him, her eyes narrowed and disdain surfaced on her face for a moment before she steeled her features ''The Hokage doesn't have time to meet with you today, try again another day'' she said dismissing him.

''Ehm, it is sorta important'' Naruto tried, even as he could feel himself getting angry over the way she just dismissed him due to his circumstance of birth.

''Don't bother the Hokage with your trifle matters, if you persist I will have you removed from the building'' she said sharply, a hint of anger in her voice now.

Shallowing his need to yell at the woman in front of him, Naruto start walking slowly towards the exit, looking over his shoulder he noticed she was busy, so without giving it a second thought, he took off running up the stair, hearing his footsteps the woman started yelling at him to stop and come back, but he continued until he arrived at a pair of double doors, hearing he running after him from behind he quickly knocked on the door before using his entire body to force the door open, barely managing to fall into the room when she reached him.

The occupants in the room looked up at the disturbance and saw Naruto lying on the floor with an angry looking secretary standing over him, both appeared to be breathing hard.

''Sorry for the disturbance Lord Hokage, this rascal wouldn't listen and just ran up here, I'll bring him out immediately'' She said still breathing heavily as she reached down towards the blond boy, who reacted by scrambling out of her reach as fast as he could moving towards the Hokage and the other occupant sitting in front of the Hokage's desk.

''I need to talk to the Hokage damn it'' Naruto got out between intakes of breath.

''You can leave us Yui-san, I will manage from here'' Hiruzen Sarutobi said in a gentle tone when it looked like the secretary wanted to object, Hiruzen sent her a glare that silenced the protest before she accepted his order and closed the door behind her after leaving.

''So, my boy, what is your name and what did you need to talk to me about, that was so urgent you decided to run past my secretary'' Hiruzen asked after Naruto had gotten on his feet with the secretary leaving.

Naruto took a quick look around the room as he stood up and he noticed the second occupant, a man with black hair, done up to look like that top of a pineapple, Making Naruto guess it was Shikaku Nara, the father of Shikamaru Nara.

''Naruto and ehm, I don't have anything to eat'' Naruto said.

Both adults had noted Naruto's state of dress at this point and had small frowns on their faces ''Do they not give you food at the orphanage?'' questioned Hiruzen.

''But I don't stay at the orphanage?'' Naruto said tilting his head slightly hoping he pulled off the act of a child well enough.

''Then where are you staying now?'' Hiruzen asked he had an intense look in his eyes that made Naruto fear that the Hokage had realized that he was not really Naruto and he would send him to the Yamanaka to have them walk his mind.

''In the alley?'' Naruto said in what he hoped was an innocent tone that did not give him away and if the look of anger that flashed on the two men's faces were anything to go by it seemed it managed.

''Well then Naruto, I will be taking my lunch break soon, why don't you go sit downstairs and wait a bit and I will come and get you for lunch?'' Hiruzen said Naruto gave him a nod and a small bow before running out of the room with a smile on his face, his objective completed.

''We will continue this another time Shikaku, for now, I want you to look into why young Naruto is living on the streets'' Hiruzen spoke, the kind look he had tried to maintain during Naruto's visit completely gone now.

''As you wish, Lord Hokage'' Shikaku responded, and after a few more exchanges the two left the room.

Xx-xX

A while later Naruto was sitting beside Hiruzen at a small barbeque restaurant, they had just received their food when Hiruzen noticed that Naruto was having trouble with using his chopsticks, so he spends a few minutes teaching him how to use them correctly before the two started eating.

The two started talking with Hiruzen asking Naruto what he wanted to do when he grew up and from there Naruto started asking Hiruzen all the questions he could about ninjas, they even got around to Hiruzen explaining the Will of Fire as it was called, Naruto even managed to get Hiruzen to give him a few pieces of advice about chakra, which Naruto hoped would help him to start using his.

Naruto was told by the Hokage to come by his office when it was time for dinner and that there would be a surprise for him at that time.

Which is why Naruto was now back in the field that he had used earlier when trying to access his chakra, sitting in a lotus position he was doing his best to feel out his chakra and try and move it around, it took a very long time but the happiness and excitement that ran through him once he could move his chakra around in his body sluggishly was overpowering.

He just lay on the ground for a while smiling at the sky as he moved his chakra around, when he finally got back up he kept trying to get a better grasp on moving his chakra around, it was hard to describe what it felt like, it was like having an extra limb that moved as he wanted it to but its movement was sluggish like walking in water.

He spent the next several hours just getting a feel for his chakra, he managed to move it to different limbs at the same time, which he found out increased his speed if he tried to run with a good amount of chakra in his legs, he later realized he was not moving his chakra around when he stopped sending it to one arm to move it to a leg, instead the chakra in his arm seemed to either dissipate or tickle back to his center, and he was sending chakra from his center to his leg while that was going.

And with that discovery, he managed to stick a leaf to his forehead as he kept a constant stream of chakra going there, and that was how he was found, sitting against a tree with a leaf stuck to his forehead, by what he guessed was an ANBU if the mask was anything to go by.

''Lord Hokage is awaiting you at the Hokage Tower'' The ANBU spoke up.

''Ahh, sorry I've lost track of time'' Naruto said before jumping up and starting to run towards the village, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

''Stand still for a moment and I will bring you there'' the ANBU said getting Naruto stop, just as he was looking up at the ANBU's mask and was about to ask how he felt a breeze against his skin before he found himself standing at the entrance to the Hokage Tower.

''I have brought Naruto Uzumaki as ask Lord Hokage'' The ANBU said kneeling beside Naruto facing toward the Hokage.

''Yes, thank you, Falcon, you are dismissed'' Hiruzen said before turning to Naruto, who gave the old man an apologetic smile.

''Sorry Lord Hokage, I was trying to learn to use chakra and lost track of time'' Naruto said shifting a bit in place in apparent embarrassment.

''It is totally fine Naruto, I was hoping to grab something to eat with you before I show you the surprise I have for you'' Hiruzen said with a kind smile on his face, making Naruto nodded his head eagerly, he was surprisingly hungry again.

This time Hiruzen lead Naruto to what Naruto quickly recognized as Ichiraku Ramen stand, and while the two of them ate dinner, Hiruzen listened to Naruto talk about how he could now feel his chakra and move it around, he had even managed to get a leaf to stick to his forehead.

Hiruzen had looked like he wanted to ask Naruto something when that came up but seemed to decide not to, Naruto showed his new ability by sticking his chopsticks to his forehead, making both the Hokage, Teuchi and Ayume laugh at him.

Afterward Hiruzen was escorting Naruto around the village, they walked for quite a bit and Naruto guessed they had moved to the area of the village that held some of the clan areas if the walls surrounding the areas was an indicator.

The two of them finally arrived at a two-story apartment complex, Hiruzen lead Naruto inside and up the stairs to an apartment door which he unlocked a guided Naruto inside.

''This is my surprise to you Naruto, this will be your home from now on. I will make sure someone comes by and helps you with food and cleaning'' Hiruzen said surprising Naruto as he had thought Hiruzen would have found somewhere to place Naruto where there would be someone to watch over him.

Naruto jumped onto the mid-section of the Hokage a hugged him with all his four-year-old might, thanking him sincerely before he let himself drop to the floor and starting to quickly look around the apartment, he found out it had four rooms, a bedroom with enough space for a bed and a closet, a bathroom with a shower, toilet and sink. A kitchen with a large fridge with a small freezer on the top. The last and largest room was the one they had entered. The only furniture in the apartment so far was a bed in the bedroom and a small table with two chairs in the kitchen.

''This is awesome'' Naruto exclaimed when he came back from his exploring getting a small chuckle from Hiruzen.

''Someone will come by tomorrow morning with breakfast and some furniture and other articles the apartment still lacks, but from tonight you will be sleeping here'' Hiruzen said before taking out a pair of keys.

''These are the keys to your apartment, for now, I will be keeping the second one, if at some point you find someone else you would rather have holding onto the key, just let me know'' Hiruzen explained before giving Naruto a key for his apartment.

''Sadly I have to go now, sleep well Naruto'' Hiruzen said before he turns to leave.

''Thanks a lot Lord Hokage and good night'' Naruto called out to him as he left.

'This day went so much better than I had hoped, not only did I manage to figure out how to use my chakra, at least to some degree, but I have even gotten an apartment to live in by myself' Naruto thought to himself

'There is even enough space that I can do chakra exercises with clones in here without anyone seeing it, that is if I can manage to pull the shadow clone technique off' Naruto thought before he yawned, and he began to feel tiredness set in.

Walking over and locking his front door, he went to the bathroom before taking a shower, after drying off and putting his underwear back on he left his dirty clothes in the bathroom before walking and crawling into bed, giving a sigh at how comfortable it was, and he was soon fast asleep.

End of Chapter One

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, reviews are welcome!

Flames are not welcome (ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻

-Akabara


	2. Sleeping Sun

AN: Thanks a lot, to all those who have followed and favourited this story, and a huge thanks to the people taking the time to review, much love! (still, no Beta, if you are inclined to use your time helping me correct my chapters, please let me know)

Chapter two - Sleeping Sun

For my dreams, I hold my life  
For wishes, I behold my night  
The truth at the end of time  
Losing faith makes a crime

Naruto suddenly woke up to the sound of insistent knocking, robbing the sleep out of his eyes he took a moment to realize who and where he was, when the knocking came again he quickly jumped out of bed and ran to the front door, unlocked it and opened it to see who it was.

Outside stood the ANBU who had picked him up yesterday, he was a tall man with short brown hair, he was wearing what to Naruto looked like standard ANBU gear, in one hand he had two small scrolls.

''Good morning Mr. Uzumaki, I am here with breakfast, some clothes and stuff you need in your kitchen'' the man said in a neutral tone, Naruto opened the door for him allowing him to enter.

''Good morning Sir Falcon, please come in, the kitchen is over there'' Naruto said pointing towards the kitchen.

Falcon entered the apartment and closed the door behind him ''I will first unseal the clothes I have for you, there are three pairs of trousers, shorts, t-shirts, and shirts plus two sets of sleepwear and six pairs of underwear'' Falcon said before dropping down and unsealing the clothes on the floor ''Please put these in your room and get dressed while I make breakfast'' Falcon said before he stood up and walked into the kitchen.

Naruto brought the clothes to his room, all the shorts and trousers were black while the t-shirts and shirts were navy blue, changing into a new pair of underwear he put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt since the weather was warm, even in the morning, he put his old underwear with his old clothes and gathered them together so they could be thrown out.

Walking back out and into the kitchen Naruto found Falcon boiling eggs and noodles, the noodles appeared to be in some kind of soup from the fragrant aroma in the air, without turning towards Naruto, Falcon spoke up ''We will be getting you some furniture for your apartment when you have eaten, as well as some footwear'' he said as he kept his focus on the food he was making.

''Okay'' Naruto responded before taking a seat at the table, a minute passed in silence before Falcon finished making the food a brought a bowl over for Naruto, in it was soup, noodles, and two eggs, he guessed they were soft boiled.

''Thank you for the food'' Naruto said before digging in using chopsticks, once the noodles and eggs were gone he drank the soup from the bowl before placing it down.

''That tasted great, thank you'' He said before Falcon took the bowl and placed it in the sink a filled some water into it.

''You are welcome, now let's get going. Since you do not have any footwear yet, I will be carrying you on my shoulders until we buy them'' Falcon said, and Naruto was not given any time to react before he found himself on the shoulders of Falcon with his arms on Falcon's head to help to keep himself balanced.

The two made their way through the village until Falcon headed for a small footwear shop, they bought Naruto two pair of sandals, Falcon put one pair in one of his pouches, while Naruto put the other pair on, after that, they made their way towards the distract that held the furniture shops.

The two spent the better part of two hours going between different shops to get the furniture for Naruto's apartment, Naruto had been happy once they had gotten him a closet for his bedroom and a small couch with a table for his living room, but Falcon insisted that they all the furniture he would or could need while growing up. They ended up getting two couches, a table to put between them, an armchair and a bookcase for his living room and a closet for his bedroom.

After helping to put the furniture in place for Naruto Falcon told him that he would be back in the evening to make him dinner and that he could find his lunch in the fridge before he left.

After Falcon left, Naruto sat down in his new armchair, which was very comfortable, and started mulling over how he should proceed now that he had learned to call upon his chakra, after going over it for a while he decided that getting the shadow clone down would be his best option since physical exercise and chakra control seemed to be the best and safest way he could make sure to be as good a ninja as possible in the future.

With that he decided to go over what he knew about the shadow clone technique:

The clone used chakra to create physical copies of the user, which he assumed meant it had a relatively high chakra consumption seeing as it used the energy to make physical clones.

It spread the chakra equally between the creator and the clones, which meant that if you made to many clones depending on your chakra level you could kill yourself.

There was only a single seal for the technique, which would hopefully make it easy to use.

He would get the memories of the clones once they dispelled, this one the main reason why he wanted to get his hand on the technique as early as possible since he could speed up any all learning.

Putting his hands into the form of the seal, he concentrated on exactly what he wanted to accomplish with his chakra, before pushing as much chakra as he could towards his hands.

Several seconds passed and nothing happened, which while it did not surprise him, made him feel kind of disappointed, after mumbling about how nothing as never easy, he started to try again, he spent the rest of the day, only pausing for lunch, attempting to create a clone without any success, but he had gotten slightly better than feeling his chakra which he decided as at least progress of a kind, even if he did not feel any closer to actually getting the technique down.

Falcon stopped by and made dinner, and Naruto decided to ask Falcon any and all questions he could think of about being a ninja, resulting in him Falcon telling him to shut up and eat when he had finished cooking.

Falcon left after cleaning up after Naruto's dinner, but not before letting Naruto know that he or another ANBU would come over in the morning.

Naruto spent the rest of the evening until he started to feel tired attempting the shadow clone technique, he took another shower before going to bed, he really liked his bed, it was super comfortable.

Xx-xX

''Reporting in'' Falcon said kneeling before the Hokage in Hiruzen's office, giving him a signal to report, Falcon went over the day's events and reported that Naruto had been doing some kind of chakra exercise during the day while holding his hands in a seal. Hiruzen hummed for a moment before dismissing Falcon thanking him for his service.

Hiruzen smiled to himself, it was nice to see that the boy seemed to be driven towards being a ninja, he could only hope the boy would live up to his parent's legacy, he had plans for the boy, wanting to put him on the next team seven hopefully under Kakashi Hatake as a Jounin instructor.

Team seven held a legacy in Konoha, he himself had been on the first team seven, later on, he had had his own team seven with the now titled The Legendary Three, Minato Namikaze had, had the latest team seven which had given rise to Kakashi.

Taking out his pipe, Hiruzen started to mull over his plans for Naruto and if he should make a few changes now that he knew the boy had the drive to be a ninja.

Xx-xX

Naruto got into a routine with waking up to knocking on his front door, then he had breakfast, afterward he headed out and exercised or just explored the village ignore or at least trying to ignore the look most of the civilian populace sent his way.

When it was time for lunch he would head home and eat the lunch that had been prepared for him, afterward he spent the afternoon attempting the shadow clone while paying as much attention as he could to how his chakra acted during his attempts.

A little over a week went by like this before his routine was interrupted, this happened when he quite literally ran into a boy his age wearing grey jackets and black pants, the boy had spiky brown hair and red markings on each cheek.

''Sorry I bumped into you'' Naruto hurried to say after getting over his fall onto his behind, he quickly got up and offered his hand to the other boy while studying his appearance.

''It's okay, I wasn't paying attention'' The boy said before taking the offered hand.

''My name is Naruto Uzumaki, it is nice to meet you'' Naruto said as he pulled the other boy to his feet.

''Name's Kiba Inuzuka'' Kiba responded once he was on his feet, the two chatted for a while before Kiba invited Naruto to come with him to play at a nearby park.

After a brief consideration, Naruto agreed since he thought it would probably be better to start making friends as soon as possible.

Naruto spent that afternoon playing with Kiba as well as Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi, when he got home an ANBU was standing outside the door, so he hurried to unlock it, before apologizing for coming back later than he had planned, the ANBU, this one a woman, told him it was no problem, before making him dinner and then cleaning up before leaving.

That evening Naruto had a breakthrough and managed to make four clones, he found out that he needed to flood his entire body with chakra in order to complete the technique, he wondered why that was but he came up blank, he knew too little about how techniques and chakra worked to make an educated guess.

But he was super happy with his success and immediately put all four clones to work on his chakra control, while he started doing physical exercises to strengthen his body, he had considered getting weights but decided against it since he was not sure if that might hinder his growth in the future, and he also prioritized getting as fast as possible over being strong, since it did not take that much force, when you had access to chakra to enhance it, to deliver a killing blow to a person.

This made him realize that at some point he would probably have to kill someone in order to protect a comrade or to finish a mission, he was not comfortable with this realization, but he knew that the world he lived in now would not allow for him to avoid it, which meant he had to chose to kill or he himself or someone he cared for might get killed in turn, so he steeled his resolve to not allow himself or his comrades to be killed, but to avoid killing if doing so was not detrimental.

Naruto went to sleep that night anxious about what his future had in store for him as a ninja but resolved to face it head on to the best of his ability.

Xx-xX

''What do you have to report Cat'' Hiruzen asked the kneeling female ANBU in front of him.

''The boy has somehow managed to learn the shadow clone technique, he managed to summon four clones earlier this evening'' Cat said, reporting the most important piece of news first.

Hiruzen stopped working on his paperwork turning his entire focus onto the ANBU in front of him ''and you have no idea as to how he learned to do the technique'' Hiruzen asked after several moments of silent consideration.

Cat hook her had ''No Lord Hokage, but from what I read, maybe he was attempting the technique all week long and not just doing chakra exercises as had previously been noted'' She responded making Hiruzen pause again.

''It would seem we might have another genius on our hands, would it not'' Hiruzen said with a pleased smile. While Konoha was known for producing ninja with weird quirks, it had an even greater reputation for producing a lot of highly talented ninja, more so than any other of the major villages.

''We might have to step in and provide some material for the boy to put in on the right path in his training, but for now finish your report'' Hiruzen said and Cat did so, mentioning the boy and ran into Kiba Inuzuka and proceeded to play with him and Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi.

This news pleased Hiruzen as much as the previous revelation did, if Naruto could get on friendly terms with several of the clan heirs from his generation then as long as he became a strong ninja, he would have both the backing of the ninja forces as well as the pedigree what with who his parents and teacher was going to be according to Hiruzen's plan, this would put the boy in a strong position to take up the mantle of Hokage in the future.

He might be able to take over after Itachi Uchiha assuming that he managed to de-escalate the growing animosity between the general populace and the Uchiha clan, if he could the loyal Uchiha genius would be the perfect choice for the mantle of Fifth Hokage, in several more years, the boy was currently in ANBU and was making quite the name for himself amongst his fellow ninja.

He would indeed have to go over his plans for Naruto, the promise he displayed with having already learned and been able to use the shadow clone technique, meant that adjustments had to be made to accomplish the best possible outcome.

Xx-xX

Naruto was none the wiser about him being observed nor that the Hokage had plans for his future in place, so the following morning after Falcon, the ANBU on Naruto duty for the day as Naruto had started calling it, had left he made as many shadow clones as he could which filled his apartment with 22 copies of himself.

''You guys know what to do while I am out'' Naruto said to his clones who all gave him a mock salute before finding a place to sit and started practicing chakra control in different ways.

Naruto left his apartment and locked the door before heading out on his daily run, he continued to run until he could go no longer before he sat down in the shade of a tree and took a rest, assuming the lotus position Naruto placed a few leaves on his foreheads and arms while channeling chakra to the areas making the leaves stick, he sat like that until he felt hungry before he headed back home to his lunch for the day.

Once lunch was over and his clones had dispelled providing him with hours of memories doing the sticking chakra exercise in different ways with different items, Naruto made a new group of clones this one had 10 in it, they all got working on the chakra exercise as Naruto headed out again.

Naruto met Kiba and the other two boys at the playground again and the four spent the afternoon playing, though Naruto made sure to head home before it was time for dinner today, he had only been home for five minutes and just dispelled his clones when there was a knock on his door, he quickly let Falcon in.

Naruto spent the evening while Falcon was there trying to talk the ANBU into teaching him a ninja technique, but Falcon just said he might do so in the future without explaining further, which made Naruto pout at him, which had the ANBU chuckling at him.

That night Naruto did not train but went over what he could do to advance his skills as fast as possible, he knew he could not advance any form of weapon skills cause he had nothing to train with and no one to teach him, he also could not learn any techniques cause he could not remember the hand signs for any and he did not know any fighting styles either, this left him with the three chakra exercises he knew of, the wind affinity training, assuming he had a wind affinity as Naruto, and anything he could learn from Konoha's public library, which he did now know if it held any ninja technique, but he could at least learn medical and general knowledge from there.

So he had to wait with weapons and techniques until he started the academy or until he could get someone to teach him, in the meanwhile he could put his entire focus into mastering his chakra and gaining as much knowledge and becoming as fit as possible for his future training.

Satisfied with his conclusion he decided to visit Konoha's library the following day and to start borrowing books on subjects that would be useful for his career path, plan made Naruto went to bed happy with his progress and hopeful for the future.

Xx-xX

A month passed rather quickly for Naruto, his routine of training after breakfast until lunch, before he went out to play with the other boys though their group had been increased by two girls, Ino Yamanaka and Hinata Hyuuga.

He had found no books on ninja techniques in the library, though there was a bunch of books on other topics he found very useful such as poisons, anatomy, medical knowledge and surprisingly enough basic a basic healing technique, but he found that his chakra control was nowhere near close enough to pull off the technique yet, though he had improved by leaps and bounds over the past month, two weeks in he had started doing the tree walking exercises and he was now doing the water walking as well.

His sense for his own chakra had gotten to the point that he could actually feel that he had two sources of chakra in his body, there was his own pool of chakra with always tickled around his body, but there was another source which was constantly flowing into his own chakra pool, he assumed it came from Kurama and the seal since he could feel that the chakra was different, more potent he would call it if he had to put a word on it.

Naruto was very happy with his progress, though so far, he used the number of shadow clones he could make as a gauge for how much he was improving, and he had gone from making 22 on his second attempt to being able to make just over 100 clones without feeling drained. He was still amazed when he filled up a small field with copies of himself for the first time.

His evening was spent studying with clones before going to bed and starting over the next morning.

Naruto was therefore quite surprised when one morning, Weasel, one of the ANBU who rotated on 'Naruto Duty' informed him after breakfast that the Hokage wanted to see him. There where five different ANBU who rotated between 'Naruto Duty' Falcon, Cat, Weasel, Wolf, and Owl.

Cat and Wolf where female meaning the other three where men, of the five Naruto, liked Falcon and Weasel best, they were the friendliest of the five, even if it was subtle differences in their behavior.

Naruto tried to pry into what the Hokage wanted to see him about, but Weasel deflected and just told him he would know soon enough, Naruto pouted at the older male, making Weasel tap his forehead with two fingers before telling him to eat up so they could get going.

The trip to the Hokage Tower was uneventful, but as they walked up the stairs and towards the double doors leading into the Hokage's office, Naruto started to feel nervous, he had no idea what the Hokage wanted to talk with him about, sure it could just be to follow up on how he was doing, but he could also have been found out in some way and that thought made him anxious as to what was going to happen.

So, distracted had he been by his thoughts that he did not realize they were already there until he heard ''Enter'' Being called out from behind the doors, Naruto swallowed nervously as Weasel opened the doors.

End of Chapter two

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, reviews are welcome!

Flames are not welcome (ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻

-Akabara


	3. Of Wolf and Man

AN: Lots of love to those who reviewed the second chapter, I respond in PMs when possible or not at all since it annoys me to see review responses at the start of chapters.

Chapter three – Of Wolf and Man

Off through the new day's mist I run  
Off from the new day's mist I have come  
We shift pulsing with the earth  
Company we keep  
Roaming the land while you sleep

Naruto and Weasel entered the office, Naruto stopping when Weasel dropped down on one knee beside him ''Hello Naruto, please have a seat'' Hiruzen said making Naruto move forwards and crawling into one of the chairs in front of Hiruzen.

''Thank you for bringing Naruto, Weasel'' Hiruzen said before turning to Naruto ''I am happy to see you are doing well Naruto''

''Thank you Lord Hokage'' Naruto responded still feeling nervous but having decided to wait and see what Hiruzen brought up and not giving away more information then he needed to.

''I am surprised and happy to learn from my ANBU who spotted you using the shadow clone technique and using them for training, could you tell me how you learn it'' Hiruzen asked.

''Well, you see, I saw a ninja use it and since it only had one hand seal I tried to learn it, since no one wanted to teach me anything, and then I found out after the first time that I remembered what the clones had done and I thought it would be good to use them to train'' Naruto said sheepishly

Hiruzen smiled at Naruto ''I would like to offer you some daily training, an hour or two each day, from the ANBU on what I have heard you call 'Naruto Duty' on any given day'' Hiruzen offered making Naruto's face bloom into surprise.

''That would be amazing'' Naruto proclaimed before he managed to get a hold of himself, luckily for him, Hiruzen just chuckled at his reaction.

''However, my offer comes with some promises you have to make in order to receive the training'' Hiruzen said getting Naruto to calm down.

''What promises do I have to make?'' Naruto asked being curious as to what Hiruzen wanted him to promise.

''Well since we are not at wartime, I would prefer to have you on an genin team with other children your age once you graduate from the academy, however this does not mean I will not allow you to graduate before them, but in that case I would place you such that you would be working with other teams until your age group graduate. I have several reasons for wanting this to be the case and it is a requirement I need you to accept if you want training'' Hiruzen explained

Naruto sat in the chair looking at Hiruzen as he mulled over the offer, the pros were that he would be getting training which meant his advancement as a ninja would progress a lot faster, however he would have to sacrifice any early advancement through the ranks, but if the Hokage wanted him on a team with his age group, he could enforce that even if Naruto did not accept the training, which probably meant that Hiruzen was giving him the offer so as to make Naruto feel he had a choice.

Naruto was surprised by that realization, though when taking into account that Hiruzen had to keep the entire village in mind and was probably making plans about the future he guessed the man had some kind of plan in mind the benefitted the village as much as possible, even if he was not sure what he had planned currently. But for Naruto the choice became clear, he could choose to get training or not, but his career would probably be the same up until he joined a genin team.

''I accept'' Naruto said, also his actual rank would not really matter that early on, for now, he just needed to survive and the rank he held would make no difference, but his skills would.

''That's good to hear, for now, they will instruct you on martial arts and weapon usage while you can continue your training with chakra control, I will leave it up to the ANBU team to decide on how to train you'' Hiruzen told him.

With Naruto having accepted Hiruzen's proposition, Hiruzen started asking Naruto questions about his life in his new apartment, Naruto spent another 20 minutes in the office before Hiruzen sent him and Weasel on their way.

''Are you going to start teaching me today?'' Naruto asked Weasel as the two were walking towards Naruto's apartment, Weasel seemed to consider his question for a few moments before responding.

''What would you like to learn Naruto?'' Weasel asked back

''Martial Arts'' Naruto said after a moment of thought, while he really wanted to learn ninja techniques so he could throw around fire and wind in battle, but he also realized that he needed to be able to stay alive long enough in a fight to be able to get his techniques off, which meant being able to avoid or fight back against physical engagements.

''I'll show you some of the basics that you can start practicing then'' Weasel replied, getting a small whoop of joy out of Naruto.

Two hours later Naruto felt like kicking his previous self in the shin for asking Weasel to train him in Martial Arts, he was lying on a field of grass breathing heavily while Weasel was sitting a bit from him and Naruto was willing to swear that the masked ANBU was amused by the situation.

''You did very well today Naruto'' Weasel said with badly concealed amusement in his voice.

Weasel and first taught Naruto how to throw simple punches and kicks before proceeding the spent the rest of the time making Naruto expend as much energy as possible practicing those punches and kicks on Weasel.

''I … don't … like ... you … right … now'' Naruto got out between breaths only adding to Weasel's amusement.

''It was you who asked for training if I remember correctly'' Weasel just responded no longer bothering to conceal his amusement.

''Tch'' Was Naruto's only response.

Xx-xX

''Naruto, my mum told me to ask if you wanted to come over dinner'' Kiba said as the two was heading towards the playground where they usually played with their other friends. It had been four weeks since Naruto started receiving training from the ANBU team that was on 'Naruto Duty' and so far, he was being taught Martial Arts as well as the use of shuriken.

''I'd love to'' Naruto replied happily ''But I'll have to leave a note at home before we go to your place''

''Sure thing'' Kiba responded before the two of them proceeded to the playground, they spent the afternoon playing 'ninja' tag and 'ninja' hide and seek amongst other things.

Kiba and Naruto arrived at Naruto's apartment and Naruto invited Kiba in, while he found a piece of paper to write a note on, finding a sticky note he quickly wrote a message saying he was visiting Kiba that evening and would not need dinner.

''Do you live here alone?'' Kiba asked sounding surprised as he looked around the apartment.

''Yeah, I am an orphan and Lord Hokage gave me this apartment after I got kicked out of the orphanage'' Naruto replied coming out of the kitchen with his note.

''What about food?'' Kiba asked since he knew that he could not make food himself.

''An ANBU comes by morning and evening to make breakfast and dinner, they leave lunch in the fridge I have to get myself'' Naruto explained as he put the sticky note on his front door as high as he could reach.

''Let's go'' Naruto said getting Kiba to come out of the apartment and Naruto locked the door after them.

There was another clan compound between Naruto's apartment complex and the Inuzuka clan compound, which meant that it was not that far of a walk before they reached the entrance to the clan compound.

The houses in the Inuzuka compound were all quite large, but none of them looked to be fenced off from each other, so there were large areas of greenery between the houses.

Dogs of all sizes were visible all around the compound, the largest being the same size as an adult male. They were greeted by several clan members along the way to Kiba's home, which from the distance they had walked from the entrance, Naruto would guess was around the center of the compound.

''Mum, we are home'' Kiba called out when they entered the house after taking off their footwear.

''Good, go wash up and then come to the kitchen, dinner is almost ready'' Called out a rough female voice, Naruto guessed coming from Kiba's mother ''And go get your sister as well''

''Okay'' Kiba called back before telling Naruto to follow him to the bathroom to wash up, once they had washed up Kiba led them further into the house before knocking on a closed door ''Sis, dinner is ready'' Kiba said before turning around and heading back towards the kitchen.

''Okay, be there in a second'' Kiba's sister replied, the voice sounded softer and more feminine than Kiba's mother's had.

The kitchen was an open space with a round table in the middle, four plates were sat out, and a feral-looking woman who looked to be in her early thirties was sitting at the table. There was a striking resemblance between Kiba and his mother, there were no questions about where Kiba got his looks from.

The woman had spiky brown hair, and the Inuzuka clan markings on her cheeks and was wearing slight baggy clothes.

''Why don't you introduce your friend Kiba and then you two can sit down'' the woman said.

''Mum this is Naruto Uzumaki, Naruto this is my mum'' Kiba said before quickly taking a seat.

''You can just call me Tsume, its good to meet you Naruto, have a seat'' Tsume said giving Naruto a grin.

''It is a pleasure to meet you Tsume'' Naruto said before taking a seat across from Kiba.

''I hope you like curry with rice'' Tsume said as she started filling up plates for Naruto and Kiba and then herself.

''It smells really good'' Naruto said sniffing the dish on his plate.

''Well go ahead and dig in, though be careful it is hot'' Tsume said, Naruto had just picked up his first spoonful when Kiba's older sister walked into the room, she looked to be around eight or nine years old was Naruto's guess.

''It smells lovely mum'' The girl said as she entered the room, she made it halfway to the table before she noticed Naruto at the table ''Oh I didn't know we had a guest. Hello, I am Hana, Kiba's sister'' Hana said as she sat down at the table starting to put food on her plate.

''I'm Naruto, nice to meet you'' Naruto said before taking his first bite, the flavour was mild, but Naruto still enjoyed it a lot, he had noticed that his taste buds did not enjoy spicy food, though he guessed that was because he was in a child's body.

The dinner proceeded with the family talking about their day and asking Naruto questions about himself, afterward Tsume cleaned up after the dinner while the children went and washed up after eating, they then played some games before told her children to go prepare for bed while she brought Naruto home to his apartment.

The trip home only took a couple of minutes as Tsume carried Naruto on her shoulders while jumping from building to build once they had left the clan compound.

''I hope you enjoyed your visit'' Tsume said as she put Naruto down at his apartment door.

''I liked it very much'' Naruto said giving her a beaming smile, Tsume ruffled his hair while giving a small chuckle.

''You are welcome to visit anytime you want Naruto, well I have to go back and get the twerps to bed, sleep well'' Tsume said before taking off after Naruto wished her good night.

Xx-xX

After his first visit to Kiba's home he started joining them at least one evening a week, Naruto enjoyed those evening very much because it made him feel like being part of a family.

His training with the ANBU was progressing quite fast as well, though he had been told he would not be learning any ninja or illusion techniques until he had finished the Academy. He was now decent at throwing both kunai and shuriken at moving targets and he had also started to learn a Martial Arts focused around speed meant to force the opponent on the defensive, so they would not have time to overpower him giving his age.

His chakra control had also gotten to the point where he had learned some basic medical techniques, Hiruzen had, had an ANBU outside the team on 'Naruto Duty' teach him, Naruto had also become able to draw on a minute amount of chakra from the Kyuubi, but with it came a lot of anger so he did not really like doing so.

He was starting to consider trying to contact the Kyuubi, but he thought it might be a good idea to talk with the Third Hokage about it first since he knew nothing about seals.

He had become friends with a lot of the clan heirs from his generation, Shino had joined them a few months in and Naruto had made sure to include him as much as possible since Shino tended to fade into the background when allowed. Shino and Naruto had become great friends because of this and Shino had been more than happy to teach Naruto about the different insects that lived around Konoha, what they looked like and where and how to find them.

It was now Naruto's sixth birthday and he had managed to enlist the ANBU to help him prepare a birthday party to which he had invited all his friends.

Cake, snacks and soft drinks were on a menu and he had gotten a few games they could play as well, Tsume had insisted on coming over to help which meant that Tsume and Cat, the ANBU of the day, were helping Naruto setup his living room, they had added another low table to the living room and moved the couches and the armchair against the wall to make space and placed cushions on the floor around the tables for the children to sit on.

''All cleaned up'' Naruto called out as he exited his bedroom room, he had grown quite a bit over the two years since he had moved into his apartment, he was wearing black trousers and a long-sleeved black shirt with the Uzumaki swirl on the back in orange, his hair had grown out a bit and Naruto had decided to try and tease the people who knew about who his father was but had not told him by starting to keep his hair in the same style his father had used before he died.

''We are also done here kiddo, come help set up the tableware'' Tsume called out from the kitchen.

The three quickly set up the two tables in the living room before knocking came on the door and Naruto quickly moved to open it.

Outside the door was all his friends and the moment he opened the door a chorused ''Happy birthday'' sounded.

Naruto gave them a wide smile as he opened the door fully ''Thanks guys, come in'' Naruto said stepping to the side, so they had free entry.

''So, this is your apartment'' Ino stated as she entered behind Kiba, looking around eagerly ''It looks like a nice place'' she added when she had finished looking around the living room.

''I told you'' Kiba said with a wide grin on his lips.

''Welcome everyone, please have a seat, cake and drinks will be served soon'' Naruto said when they had all entered, motioning towards the tables in the middle of the room.

''Tha-Thank you for inviting us Naruto, here is a gift for you'' Hinata said after stumbling at the start. The girl was shy by nature but had gotten better throughout the time Naruto had known her, she handed him a wrapped gift before taking a seat beside Ino.

''Thank you Hinata'' Naruto said as he sat down with it.

''Well open it already'' Ino said curious about what was inside the gift.

Naruto unwrapped the gift, inside was a book titled ''A medics guide to Chakra Pathways'', the book was written by a Hyuuga medical ninja who had served during the third shinobi war.

''You once said you wanted to be a medical ninja and father said that this would be a huge help'' Hinata said looking at Naruto nervously to see if he liked the gift.

''This is amazing Hinata, thank you so much, did you know that there are no real books on the subject in the village's library'' Naruto said giving Hinata a huge smile, making the girl give him a small smile in return.

''Stop being such a nerd Naruto'' Ino said ''Here open my gift next'' she said pushing her gift across the table to him. It had become known to the group that Naruto studied a lot of different topics from the Konoha Library and so the children had jokingly started to call him a nerd every time he started talking about something he had studied.

Ino's gift was larger than Hinata's and when he had unwrapped it he found two pouches that could be attached to a belt.

''Look inside them, they are special'' Ino said proudly, making Naruto unzip one of the pouches, inside where to small compartments at the end for storage, while most of the area had been designed to hold test tubes ''They are made for Medical ninja's to carry test tubes, soldier pills, and other stuff in the field'' Ino explained.

''These are awesome, thanks a lot Ino'' Ino returned his smile, happy that he liked her present.

''I am next'' Kiba called out before pushing his gift across the table ''Mum and Hana helped me get it, it is also from them''

The gift was a small one, Naruto unwrapped it to find a box, inside which was a pendant. The pendant was a silver circle with the symbol for the Inuzuka Clan in black carved into the silver, there was a silver chain connected to the circle.

''Mum said that while you are officially a part of the clan, we consider you family'' Kiba said with a proud grin on his face, Naruto looked from the pendant to Kiba and then to Tsume, who was giving him a grin much like Kiba's.

Naruto stood up and charged at Tsume, jumping to give her a hug around her mid-section, which was as far as he could reach as he mumbled 'thank you' repeatedly into the shirt, Tsume just patted his back saying it was their pleasure, after a few moments she ushered him back to his seat to continue to birthday.

''Thank you Kiba'' Naruto said giving him a soft but truly happy smile that he rarely displayed.

''Next present is from me and Shikamaru'' Chouji said pushing it over to Naruto, Naruto almost corrected Chouji on his speech but decided that now probably wasn't the time for it.

Unwrapping the gift, he found two small boxes, one contained Akimichi Soldier pills, which were known to be better and more effective with less drawback than the average soldier pill, the other one contained a bunch of test tubes.

''Thanks a lot, you two, did you all coordinate to get me all these gifts?'' Naruto asked jokingly a which point all the children looked away from him surprising Naruto before he gave a laugh, making the children turn back towards him laughing as well.

''Seems like my present is last, here you go'' Shino said pushing his gift across the table.

Shino's gift was heavier than any of the other's, so Naruto was curious as to what was inside it.

After unwrapping it he found a mortar and pestle made beautifully in a kind of stone he did not recognize.

''Thank you, Shino, it seems like I have everything I need to become a great medical ninja'' Naruto said, after packing the gifts away Tsume and Cat served the cake and the celebrations started.

They spent the entire afternoon playing games and having fun, as the afternoon came to an end, the parents of the children started showing up picking up their children after wishing Naruto a happy birthday, Naruto was glad that none of the parents that showed up seemed to hold any kind of dislike for him.

Naruto was in for a surprise that evening after all his guests and Tsume had left and the entire ANBU team that took part of ''Naruto Duty'' showed up and wished him a happy birthday.

''We have talked Lord Hokage into allowing us to teach you one Ninja Technique, however seeing as we all know a lot of different ones we could not agree on which one to teach you'' Weasel said as they all sat inside Naruto's living room where the furniture had been moved back into place ''Well we all wanted to teach you our favourite Technique so we couldn't come to an agreement'' He stage-whispered making Naruto and the other ANBU chuckle.

''Therefore we decided to allow you to chose which kind of elemental Ninja Technique you would like to learn'' Falcon said getting nods from all the ANBU who turned their attention towards Naruto.

''I think I would like to learn and wind-styled Ninja Technique'' Naruto said which caused to pump his fist in victory while the other sighed in disappointment.

''Looks like I win, which means I will be teaching you the Wind Release – Air bullets'' Falcon replied.

Naruto spent that evening being taught his second Ninja Technique.

Xx-xX

End of Chapter three

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, reviews are welcome!

Flames are not welcome (ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻

-Akabara


	4. Blood Bound

AN: Thank you to all the people following and favoriting this story, and a huge thanks to the people taking the time to review, much love!

Chapter Four – Blood Bound

Countdown, descending down to zero  
Bursting into flames  
Can't you see the coming of a hero  
On this enchanting day

Sitting in a meeting hall, all the clan heads of Konoha have gathered along with the Hokage and the different heads of different depart, like T&I, Konoha Hospital, and ANBU. It was the middle of December, yet the weather in Konoha was still slightly warm, only dropping into single digits during the night.

''If there is nothing more to report and no one has anything to bring before this gathering we can call it a night'' Hiruzen stated, the group had gone over any inter-clan issues that had propped up since their meeting the previous month and also the reports of the department heads with any information that was for the Hokage only removed.

''I would like to make a formal request to have the Kyuubi Jinchuriki under my tutelage until he is to be placed on a genin team'' Danzo, a wounded veteran from Hiruzen's generation, requested.

''His name is Naruto, you old bastard'' Tsume grumbled under her breath only loud enough for those sitting near her to hear.

''I cannot fulfill that request, I have an agreement with young Naruto that I plan to abide by'' Hiruzen said, not wanting to allow his political rival any position of strength that might lessen his own.

''Is there a reason why you are denying Danzo's offer of training the Jinchuriki when you have your own ANBU spending their time taking care of and training the boy?'' Fugaku asked with a slight edge to his tone ''As I see it allowing Danzo to take over the duty of training the boy would free up the ANBU for more important tasks''

The remaining Clan heads remained silent on the topic waiting to see how Hiruzen would respond, it was no secret that Fugaku and the Uchiha clan, in general, had begun to hold the Third Hokage in disdain, blaming him for not backing up the clan when public opinion started turning against them after the Kyuubi incident.

''Naruto is showing considerable talent and drive towards becoming a great ninja in the service of this village in the future, I plan to make him as powerful and as loyal to the village as I possibly can, and I do not care to put him under the methods that Danzo uses for his ROOT agents'' Hiruzen stated in response.

''Say what you will about my ROOT agents, but their loyalty has never been in question'' Danzo replied not willing to give up on his request just yet.

''Loyalty to who, now that is something I am not entirely certain of'' Hiruzen said in a tone that warned Danzo to back off.

''In that case how about letting me adopt Naruto, I am sure no one here would second guess the loyalty of my clan, my family and I have already considered Naruto a part of the family and I am sure we have several members beside myself who would also be willing to assist Naruto in his training'' Tsume spoke up, getting nods from her fellow ninja when she spoke about her families loyalty to Konoha.

''I am afraid I cannot show that kind of preferential treatment towards one of the clans, I know you care deeply for Naruto, but given his special circumstances, I have to take the political aspect of his status into account'' Hiruzen said, hoping to end the talks about Naruto since he did not want his plans for the boys future to be disturbed in any way.

''I do not think any clans would object to letting us foster Naruto until he became a genin'' Tsume said trying to force the issue.

''I would'' Said Fugaku said ''I would want the boy to be fostered in my clan if the boy is to be fostered''

It was a growing concern for some of the clan heads and department heads that Fugaku seemed to insist on pitting himself against the other clans if the Uchiha was not receiving compensation equal to what another clan would be getting.

''And there you have it, I am putting the talks about Naruto to rest here, is there any other matter that needs to be brought up?'' Hiruzen asked, after a round of negatives he ended the meeting by wishing everyone good night.

With the meeting adjourned, Shikaku, Inoichi, and Chouza were sitting inside Shikaku's living room with sake placed in front of them.

''I am getting worried about the growing antagonism from Fugaku and the withdrawal of the Uchiha clan in general, reports of distrust from Uchiha ninja's towards they fellow Konoha ninja are growing as well, if something is not done to reintegrate them soon I fear it will be too late, which would have horrible consequences for Konoha'' Shikaku said ''This is way too troublesome to deal with fully sober'' Shikaku added before draining his saucer.

''Is there anything we can do, and should we not try to sort it through Lord Hokage'' Chouza questioned.

''I am not sure Lord Hokage can alleviate the problem given that the Uchiha are holding him responsible for their current situation and the worse it gets, the more they will hate him for it'' Inoichi said adding his opinion.

Shikaku sighed in annoyance before speaking ''I don't really think there is anything we can do, in fact, I think if we tried to help, the distrust of the Uchiha would probably just make it so that us trying to get involved would escalate the conflict''

''It also does not help when Fugaku is so willing to burn bridges to any potential allies publicly like he has been doing'' Inoichi added.

The three sat in silence continuing to enjoy their sake, even if the topic weighed heavily on them.

''It is a shame that Lord Hokage is so adamant about Naruto's conditions staying as they are, my son has nothing but positive things to say about the boy'' Chouza said deciding to change the topic.

''I agree, I think it would be good for the boy to grow up in a clan like the Inuzuka who prize loyalty over everything else'' Inoichi added getting nods from the other two.

''I can't shake the feeling that Lord Hokage has something big planned for Naruto's future, it is common knowledge that Itachi is Hiruzen's choice for a successor and he has made sure that he is on the ANBU team that watches over and trains Naruto'' Shikaku said, getting agreeing hums from his two friends.

From there they took up less serious topics while they continued to drink until Shikaku's wife chased the other two out.

Xx-xX

Naruto was looking forward to the new year when he would start going to the academy, which meant that he would have a chance to learn the basic ninja techniques at some point.

After leaving the Air Bullet technique on his birthday, Naruto had decided to start learning to master his use of wind chakra, he was almost able to split a leaf down the middle at this point, but it had taken up most of his clones time in the period since is birthday which meant he had not been focusing as much on his other area's of training, however Naruto had decided to at least get the leaf splitting exercise down before he started the Academy, then he could continue his affinity training in the future.

Sitting in the armchair in his living room Naruto was rereading the book Hinata and given to him as a gift for his birthday for the third time, he was stopping periodically to move his chakra to whatever part of the body the book was talking about trying to get a feel for his chakra network, it was easier said than done and Naruto was not sure if he was imagining things or if he was actually making progress when he felt like he could sense his chakra pathways for a moment in time.

Naruto was deeply fascinated by the medical knowledge he had been studying and especially what being able to influence the chakra network on people might bring to the table, Naruto had already considered making a technique to have his chakra convert to healing chakra internally so as to heal any damage and wounds he suffered while he was in a fight, however for now he was just working on the theory behind such a technique before he would start working on making it into reality.

Releasing a sigh when there was a knock on the door, Naruto put down the book before dispelling the clones in his apartment that had been cutting leaves. Opening the door, he found Kiba standing outside and Naruto did not hesitate to invite him inside.

''Mum wanted to invite you over for new year's eve, so she sends me to ask if you wanted to come'' Kiba said before jumping onto one of Naruto's couches and lying down.

''I would be happy to join you'' Naruto replied before walking into the kitchen, he came back with two cups of iced tea ''Are you looking forward to when we start the Academy?'' Naruto asked sitting down opposite Kiba after putting one of the cups down in front of the said boy.

''Kind of, but I don't really want to study, it so boring'' Kiba said before sitting up and taking a sip of his drink. ''If I had your clone trick studying would be so easy, its unfair that you can just have your clones study for you'' Kiba said with mock irritation in his voice.

''Well, we cannot all be a great as I, You should take note of my greatness and hope to one day a tenth of what I am'' Naruto proclaimed with the most arrogant and obnoxious attitude he could muster while striking a grandeurs pose on his couch.

Silence reigned for a few seconds in the apartment before they both started laughing, as they tried to get control of their laughter if their eyes met they would start laughing again.

It took a couple of minutes before they calmed down enough to try and even out their breathing ''Man you almost sounded a bit like one of those Uchiha, they always act super self-important'' Kiba said.

''Please don't ever compare me to an Uchiha again, I think I just got goosebumps'' Naruto said feigning horror, causing Kiba to laugh again.

''I probably won't be around much the next couple of days, mum decided that it was time I started to learn to help out with the kennel'' Kiba stated getting a nod from Naruto.

''Well it can't be that bad, I mean all the dogs in your clan are so nice'' Naruto said, Kiba and he had on more than one occasion spent an afternoon playing rough with the dogs in the Inuzuka compound.

''Sis has been telling me horror stories for the last four days, though I am not sure if she is just trying to scare me if it is true or both'' Kiba explained with an exaggerated sigh.

The two continued to talk for a bit before Kiba said he had to go.

''I'll let mum know you will join us for New Years, she will probably come and pick you up on the day, see you then'' Kiba called as Naruto saw him out, Naruto called back his understanding before returning to his apartment.

The next day after Naruto had eaten lunch he went for a walk around the town, he was wearing a black hoodie with the hood up so people would not recognize him, he had taken to dress this way whenever he went out amongst the general populace a while back as he got fed up with the looks the civilian side of the village and a few ninjas would send him.

Naruto had been walking around for half an hour when he saw something that surprised him, a contingent of Cloud ninja walking through the village.

Naruto could not recall such an event from the story, he continued to stare after them for a while, before he decided to head home, he kept having a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that something big would be happening that night and that he should remember what it was.

Xx-xX

Naruto kept trying to remember why it was the Cloud ninja's being in Konoha bugged him and it was not until a bit after dinner than he remembered why. The Hyuuga incident!

Naruto started trying to recall as many details as he could about it but only came up with the facts that one of the Cloud ninjas had tried to kidnap Hinata during the night, after being discovered by Hiashi who after catching up with the Cloud nin, killed him swiftly securing the safety of his daughter.

The political fallout from Hiashi killing the Cloud nin had resulted in Konoha agreeing to hand over the body of the Cloud ninjas killer, where Hizashi had chosen to stand in for his identical brother, leaving Neji without a father and spiteful of the main family of the Hyuuga.

Quickly making a decision, Naruto redressed into his training gear which included four pouches, two on his hips and one on each leg, after ensuring he had his shuriken and kunai, he left his apartment, wall walking onto the roof he started roof jumping towards the Hyuuga compound, determined to make a difference, that would hopefully make the future better for at least two person.

Naruto started planning what he could do to solve the situation, he determined that the best solution would be to engage the Cloud ninja after he had kidnapped Hinata, because if he interrupted it before there was a chance he would try again later leading to the result Naruto was hoping to avoid, creating six clones, Naruto spread them out of that they could keep track of the side of the Hyuuga clan compound that faced toward the village.

Naruto waited for several hours as it turned completely dark before one of his clones spotted the Cloud ninja making his way toward the Hyuuga compound, as soon as he had jumped over the wall the clone dispelled informing Naruto, who quickly moved to that position, making sure to stay hidden on the rooftops, Naruto made 50 clones to cover the entire area, making the surround a spot he had decided would be best for his ambush.

Five minutes after Naruto and his clones had found hiding spots the Cloud nin came jumping out of the Hyuuga compound with a burlap sack over his shoulder, after a quick look around the Cloud ninja set a fast pace down the streets, and in a few moments he made it to the area where Naruto and his clones were hidden.

When he was in optimal position, a hail of kunai and shuriken from all around him forced the Cloud ninja to jump back, where he dropped the sack before taking up a defensive stance. Sending more waves of throwing weapons after the Cloud ninja as they jumped out of their hiding spots giving pursuit nin as he avoided the barrage with only a few shallow cuts.

Naruto himself allowed his clones to continue the assault as he jumped down and grabbed the burlap sack before taking off with it running around the corner before taking to the roofs, finding a great hiding spot he sat down with the sack between his legs and he opened it and freed the tied up and crying Hinata, as soon as she saw Naruto she hugged and started crying into his shoulder, unsure of himself, Naruto hugged her back and started patting her back while whispering to her ''It is going to be all right''

Back with Naruto's clones they had started bombarding the Cloud ninja with Air Bullets now that Hinata was safely out of the Cloud nin's grasp.

The man had defended himself with an earth wall, but the clones had taken the opportunity to surround the man once more, pelting him into the ground with the remaining fifteen clones that had not been taken out by the Cloud nin yet.

Naruto had expected a prolonged battle, which was why when one of his clones dispelled after they had ensured the Cloud nin was knocked out and they had tied him up to the best of their ability with ninja wire.

Barely a minute passed before Hiashi arrived at the scene of 10 Naruto's standing guard over the tied up Cloud ninja, Hiashi swiftly inquired about his daughter's whereabouts, and they informed him that the real Naruto had her before one of them dispelled to let Naruto know that Hiashi was there now.

Hinata had cried herself to sleep against Naruto so he picked her up in a princess carry before heading towards Hiashi, Hiashi spotted Naruto with his eyes active way before he arrived, Naruto arrived at the same time as a squad of ANBU showed up.

''What happened here'' a man with spiky silver hair wearing a dog mask questioned, Naruto recognized the man immediately and quickly responded.

''I saw this man jump into the Hyuuga clan compound after he checked to make sure there was no one around, he came out less than 10 minutes later carrying this burlap sack over his shoulder, I decided to engage him since he might have kidnapped someone from the Hyuuga compound'' Naruto explained.

''I engaged and surrounded him with my shadow clones, forcing him on the defensive and to drop the burlap sack to defend himself, I grabbed the sack and left leaving my clones to engage the man while I found a hiding spot since I did not think my clones would be able to take him out'' Naruto continued.

''Once in what I considered a safe spot, I looked inside the sack and found Hinata here tied up, I tried to get her to calm down while I waited for back up as I had received the memory of 35 of my clones being dispelled by the Cloud nin. Then I got the memory of my clones surrounding and knocking him out with the use of Air Bullet and shortly after that Lord Hyuuga showed up'' Naruto finished.

''Lord Hyuuga, you may bring your daughter to your clan compound, I will take the perpetrator into custody and have Uzumaki explain what happened to Lord Hokage'' Dog or Kakashi as Naruto knew him as said, Hiashi took his daughter from Naruto and quickly brought her back into the compound.

Kakashi assigned one of his fellow ANBU to carry the man to T&I before he turned back to Naruto.

''Follow me mister Uzumaki'' Kakashi said, before taking to the roofs.

20 minutes later Naruto was sitting in front of Hiruzen to Hiruzen's left side, while on Hiruzen's left were two members of the Cloud delegation.

The two had been allowed to hear Naruto's testimony and had quickly distanced themselves from what their fellow Cloud ninja had done, insisting that it was the man's ambition and stupidity that had led him to make that decision and that there were no orders in place.

To avoid more political trouble then needed the Cloud delegation was forced to pack up and leave, before being escorted to the border after being told than Konoha would contact Cloud once they had interrogated the guilty party.

Before Hiruzen could send Naruto home after having told him that he was proud of his actions taken to defend a fellow leaf citizen, Hiashi arrived at Hiruzen's office wanting to talk with Naruto.

''On behalf of the Hyuuga clan but mostly as Hinata's father I would like to thank you for what you did tonight mister Uzumaki'' Hiashi stated giving a bow at the waist towards Naruto.

''Please call me Naruto, and Hinata is a good friend of mine so I am glad that I was able to help so no thanks are needed'' Naruto replied.

''Hinata has talked quite a bit about both you and her other friends and it makes me happy you have helped her get out of shell, and I am pleased she has a friend she can count on that is as capable as you are Naruto, the Hyuuga clan will from this day forward consider you a friend of the clan, we will stand with you in the future as you have stood with us tonight'' Hiashi said before placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

''I can see why Tsume has taken a liking to you and I look forward to seeing what you will accomplish in the future'' Hiashi said, making Naruto smile at the mention of what he had come to consider as family.

''I am honored to have the Hyuuga clan consider me a friend'' Naruto replied.

After a few more exchanges of words, Hiruzen had an ANBU escort Naruto home and standing guard at his home ensuring that the Cloud ninja did not try to retaliate against him.

Xx-xX

End of chapter four.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, reviews are welcome!

Flames are not welcome (ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻

-Akabara


	5. Sacred Heart

Huge thanks to the reviewers much love 3, I respond in PMs to those I can.

Chapter five – Sacred Heart

We'll find the sacred heart  
Somewhere bleeding in the night  
Look for the light  
And find the sacred heart

''Ejiri Toru, age 18, newly promoted Chuunin of Kumogakure, he is a stealth specialist with mastery of several stealth techniques which is why he was given the mission to infiltrate and kidnap the heir of the Hyuuga clan'' Inoichi reported standing in front of Hiruzen who was sitting at his desk in his office.

''Sadly, we have no physical proof of him being ordered to do this, but I still think we can use this to attain peace with Kumogakure and end the skirmishing, after all, order or not it was one of their shinobi who broke the none aggression agreement'' Hiruzen stated thinking out loud for a moment.

''It should at least give us a greater chance at attaining peace without having to compromise or give Cloud anything, after all even ninja villages are somewhat beholden to their Daimyo, and we can request the Fire Daimyo put pressure on the Lightning Daimyo'' Shikaku added.

Currently in the Hokage office was, Inoichi, Shikaku, Hiashi, and Hiruzen. It was the day after the attempted kidnapping of Hinata and Inoichi and his fellow Yamanaka had spent the night searching through the Cloud ninja memories.

''While I would prefer to see Cloud punished for their transgression, I am not foolish enough to think that attaining peace would not be the better outcome'' Hiashi said with a frown on his face.

''It has indeed been hard to get Kumogakure to the negotiation table and even then they are making obscene demands, I would like to use the incident to force them to agree to peace without any such demands in place'' Hiruzen said in a tone displaying his wariness of war, with him having lived through the three great ninja wars it was not surprising he would seek peace when he thought it reasonably possible.

''What are your plans for Naruto's future'' Hiashi asked ''I would like to help the boy in any way possible seeing was what he has done for our clan''

''I am still quite surprised Naruto is already at the level where he can take on a, if barely so, Chuunin level ninja even if it was in an ambush where Naruto had the chance to overwhelm him'' Shikaku stated

''Yes Naruto is a lot further along than I had expected from the reports my ANBU have given me, I guess he has not shown them everything he is capable of'' Hiruzen added ''For now Naruto will be attending the academy until he has proven he is ready to graduate, at which time he will be acting in a role as back up or assistant for genin teams doing C ranked missions''

''If you would allow it, I would like to assist Naruto in developing his martial arts to some extent, I hope he can continue to be a good influence on my daughter'' Hiashi said.

''You will have to ask Naruto yourself, I am planning to let Naruto deal with his own training from when he starts at the academy onwards and for some reason it is hard to find someone who is willing to be a housekeeper for the boy'' Hiruzen said giving out a tired sigh.

''I will have a member of my clan take on that role if you will allow it'' Hiashi quickly offered.

''I probably should seeing as how Fugaku is behaving, but I am too tired of wasting time on it so I will allow it, you can probably talk with Naruto himself about his preference'' Hiruzen said accepting Hiashi's offer.

The four me soon returned to discussing how exactly they would try to get a peace treaty out of Kumogakure, which ended up taking a while.

Xx-xX

Naruto was current eating dinner in his apartment while explaining the previous days event, how he had used numbers to overwhelm his target and the used superior firepower to take him down, though he noted he was quite surprised that he was able to do so, he had only expected to be able to hold him off for a few moments to maybe a minute while he hid with the sack, planning to wait for anyone from Konoha to back him up.

Weasel who was the ANBU on duty listened carefully and praised Naruto for how he has chosen to handle the engagement with what he believed was a superior opponent, focusing on bringing the kidnapped person to safety over trying to prove himself in a fight.

Naruto even admitted that he had been downright terrified up until he had escaped with the sack, afraid that any moment the Cloud ninja would break free from his clones and attack him.

Weasel explained to Naruto that it took a certain strength of character to be too willing to put oneself in harms way in order to protect those who cannot protect themselves, how courage did not mean being not being afraid when your own safety or someone you cared about safety was at risk, courage meant being able to stay true to one's convictions even when facing such situations.

Weasel started explaining in detail what duties a Ninja of the Leaf truly had, both the glamorous ones but also the ones that could only be described as necessary evils, he described that most ninja's found something which would keep them busy even when they were not active in the field in order to keep their minds from wondering to what ifs. Some ninja found outlets through active social lives or their families, while others did it through vices like drinking, visiting brothels or other less admirable activities, while other still might put all their focus unto bettering themselves, becoming the best version of themselves that they could possibly be, and a small number chose to acknowledge their actions and the consequences said actions had, working through any doubts or guilt they might feel because of said actions, and steel their resolve as a result. But all of these examples only mentioned those who managed to deal with their conscience in some way, because those who did not, either stopped being a ninja, went crazy or became suicidal often dying in the field if the problem was not spotted.

While Naruto had indeed thought about how he would more than likely have to take lives or take actions that resulted in the loss of life, or that he might not be able to protect a friend or fellow Leaf ninja, the way Weasel spoke about and explained it to Naruto made it all become so much more real, he could quite clearly imagine himself in some of the situations where he doubted if he could make the right choice or even make a choice.

But as the conversation came to a close much later that evening Naruto had steeled his resolved and resolved himself to do what he could for Konoha so that his friends would have to face as few of those situations as possible in the future.

Weasel found himself impressed when he noticed Naruto seem to draw on an inner strength few Leaf ninja had before they became field tested, he knew that the boy in front of him would have a great future and a great force for good, at least as far as Konoha was concerned.

Xx-xX

The next morning Naruto found himself waking up to the knocking on his front door, which had become the norm for him, thinking nothing of it, Naruto jumped out of bed, not bothering to get dressed before walking to open the door.

To his great surprise, it was not one of the ANBU but instead Hinata, her father and another female Hyuuga, who looked to be either in her late teens or early twenties. Giving a yelp Naruto quickly dashed to his room to put on clothes, before coming back out.

''Sorry about that, not used to getting guests this early'' Naruto said with an embarrassed smile, Hiashi and the Hyuuga woman only laughed at him shortly before Hiashi ensured him no harm was done.

''That is also part of the reason why we are here, one of several'' Hiashi said ''If you do not mind, I would like to sit down and talk about it with you while Shizue here makes breakfast for us'' at this point Naruto noticed that the woman was carrying a small bag.

''Of cause, come in and make yourself at home'' Naruto said inviting them in, showing Shizue to the kitchen before joining Hiashi and Hinata on the couches.

''So first of all, thank you again for stepping in and saving Hinata'' Hiashi said before both he and Hinata bowed from where there were sitting towards him, Naruto immediately felt uncomfortable, this was a part of the societal norm in Konoha he had yet to get used to. Before he could wave it off Hiashi continued.

''The reason why Shizue is with us today, is because the Hokage was looking into hiring a caretaker to take care of your meals, cleaning and washing your clothes, what the ANBU have done for you up to now, he was having trouble finding someone so I offered to find someone in my clan to take up the duty, and Shizue here was willing to do so, I hope that is acceptable with you, you can discuss with Shizue how and when things are done later of cause'' Hiashi said pausing to make sure Naruto got it all and when Naruto nodded his agreement he continued on to his next topic.

''Lord Hokage also let me know that you had been trained by ANBU members until now, but that he planned to let you take charge of your own training fully once you started in the Academy. I would, therefore, like to offer to train you a few times a week for a couple of hours in Martial Arts, if you, in turn, agree to let Hinata partake in said lessons'' Hiashi stated.

Naruto was not quite sure what to make of this offer but he saw no downside to it, so he agreed ''That would be a huge help, I have heard a lot about how great the Hyuuga clan is at Martial Arts, thank you for the kind offer I accept''

''I am glad to hear it, you have impressed me with your actions Naruto, and I hope you can help my daughter to strive for improvement as well'' Hiashi replied giving Naruto a small smile before he went on ''The last reason why I am here is to invite you to come to dine with my family tonight, my wife would also like to offer her gratitude for your actions, and I would like you to meet my family now that would will be visiting us several times a week in the coming year''

''I would love to come, but I am not sure I have anything I could wear to such an event, I only have casual clothes'' Naruto said looking at the formal wear both Hinata and Hiashi was wearing, and that he remembered that Shizue had also been wearing.

Noticing Naruto's look at their clothes, Hiashi gave a short chuckle. ''That is no problem, I would be happy to go into the village and gift you are set of formal clothing as part of my thanks'' Naruto was not sure whether or not he should agree, he had not meant for his statement to provoke such an offer, but on the other hand he had always wanted to try out the more formal clothing. In the end, he chose to accept after some thought since he was sure one pair of children's clothing was not going to encumber the Hyuuga clan.

After that Hiashi allowed Naruto and Hinata to talk, Hinata was a first quite shy, both because he father was there, but also because Naruto had saved her, it was like the prince and princess in some of the stories her mother would sometime read for her.

But by the time Shizue began carrying out food and tableware the two were chatting normally, Naruto telling Hinata about some of the things he had to learn from the ANBU when she asked how he had gotten strong enough to fight with a real ninja.

While eating Naruto and Hinata continued to talk between bites, while the two adults just ate and looked at their interactions. Hiashi was quite happy to see how outgoing his daughter was around Naruto, at home she rarely behaved like that unless around her mother and younger sister, and even then it was more muted, he frowned a bit at what that could mean, but he resolved himself that he would have to keep trying to help Hinata build an inner strength if she was to lead the Hyuuga clan once he stepped down.

This was one of the things he hoped Naruto could help encourage in his daughter, they were a clan of great tradition and the clan head needed to be able to shoulder those traditions, even the less pleasant ones.

When they had finished eating, Hiashi suggested they go pick up a Kimono for Naruto to use as formal wear for the night, the two children quickly agreed and they left Shizue behind to deal with the housework.

Xx-xX

Naruto noticed a vast difference between walking beside Hiashi and when he was alone and not wearing a hoodie, instead of sending disdainful or even hateful looks, he was now being pointedly ignored and sent curious looks as people wondered why Hiashi would spend time near 'that boy'.

Naruto decided to ignore it as best he could, but he did notice that Hiashi picked up on it, even if his face never revealed his thoughts about it.

Their journey through the village came to an end when they arrived at a very high end and expensive looking cloth shop, leading the two children inside, Hiashi spotted the disdainful look sent Naruto's way before the story owner schooled her face.

''Greeting Lord Hyuuga. How might I be of service today'' The owner a short middle-aged woman asked giving a small bow towards Hiashi.

''I am here today, to get a Kimono for young Naruto here'' Hiashi said before putting his hand on the boy's shoulder ''Either a premade one or one that can be finished by tonight''

The store owner frowned for a second before looking thoughtful after a few seconds she spoke ''I will have to take the boys measurement to see if we have anything that fits or can be made to fit otherwise I will have to call in a few extra workers'' the woman said.

With his features as neutral as his voice sounded Hiashi said ''Then please do, the price is not an issue, young Naruto here is a friend on my clan after all''

This statement made the woman's eyes go wide and her eyebrow lift up as far as they would go in surprise ''Yes of cause, please step onto this stool, young man'' The woman said before she went to grab a pen, a notebook and measuring tools, Naruto doing as asked stood on the stool the woman had indicated.

Being measured for clothing was a new experience for Naruto, and one he decided he most certainly did not like, though if it was because of the woman doing it he was not sure, but like it, he did not.

When the measuring was done the woman gave a thoughtful hum while the stood in thought for a while before she turned to Hiashi ''I am afraid we do not carry anything in this boys size, and it would be a waste of precious fabric to resize it, so I would like to make a completely new one, I will just need you to choose a design and the colours you would like.

With Hinata's and Hiashi's input he chose an entirely black kimono with the Uzumaki swirl in orange on its back, Naruto decided to orange to honour the original owner of the body he was in, and he also thought it looked quite cool if he was honest.

Order for a Kimono made, the three made their way back to Naruto's apartment, where Hiashi told Shizue to escort Naruto to pick up the Kimono at the agreed time before bringing him to the Hyuuga compound after that Hiashi and Hinata said their goodbyes and left.

Naruto and Shizue used the rest of the morning until lunch to arrange what and when Shizue would be doing for Naruto, Naruto agreed to have her over for breakfast and dinner every day, welcoming her to eat with him since he preferred the company to eating alone, and Shizue seemed like a nice person.

Naruto also agreed to allow her to clean his clothes and apartment as she felt was needed, as long as she let him know beforehand when she planned to do so.

After Lunch Shizue took Naruto shopping, making sure to get his input on what kind of food he preferred but also making sure to get a variety to cover all his nutritional needs.

After having filled Naruto's kitchen cabinets and fridge, the two made their way to the clothing shop to pick up Naruto's kimono, arriving a short while before the agreed time., after picking it up and getting Naruto dressed, to which he needed help, having never worn a kimono before, they headed to the Hyuuga compound.

Xx-xX

Naruto was happily surprised when they had arrived at the Hyuuga compound and had been led to the dining hall where Hiashi, his wife, and two daughters, along with Hizashi and Neji where gathered.

''Welcome Naruto, allow me to introduce me to my nearest family'' Hiashi said in welcome when Naruto entered the dining hall ''This is my wife Reiko. You are already familiar with Hinata my first daughter, Reiko is holding my second daughter Hanabi, she is a few months short of being two years old'' Hiashi introduced his family with a somehow less neutral look then what he normal looked like, Naruto was not sure how the man managed it, but he did.

''This is my younger twin brother Hizashi and his son Neji'' Naruto exchanged greetings with the Hyuuga members he had not met before.

The dinner went on to be far less formal than what Naruto had feared, but he still felt that it was quite weird that Hiashi was the only person with a permanent neutral look on his face, while everyone else freely displayed their moods.

Naruto found himself talking with Neji and Hinata about the Academy, with Neji being a year older than Hinata and Naruto the younger two asked him questions about his time in the academy, when the event two days previous was brought up, Neji was let in on the story, and after that the agreement between Naruto and Hiashi for Naruto to receive training alongside Hinata, which Neji requested to take part in as well, which Naruto happily agreed to, both because he knew Neji would grow to be hailed as a genius in the clan, but also because Naruto hoped Hinata and Neji could have a close bond.

Hanabi ended up taking a liking to Naruto, she especially liked his face and kept trying to touch his whisker marks during the time he played with her, Hanabi was put to bed early in the evening when she started to show signs of running out of steam.

When the dinner was over, and it was getting late, Shizue was called upon to escort Naruto back home, which she did without any complaint.

''So what do you think of the boy'' Hiashi asked, it was currently only Hiashi, Hizashi, and Reiko in the room, with Hinata and Neji been put to bed as well.

''I think he is a bright child, you can see it in the way he is always paying attention to everyone around him, he also seems quite mature for his age, at least in some ways, I noticed that your daughter was quite fond of him'' Hizashi replied.

''If he continues to grow in the direction he appears to be growing in now, I think he will become quite the splendid young man, if that happens I would certainly not mind having him as a son in law'' Reiko stated, releasing a small giggle, when both Hiashi and Hizashi mirrored each other's shocked look.

''I don't really think we need to concern ourselves with Hinata finding a suitor just yet'' Hiashi quickly responded, after a few moments he added ''Though I do have to agree with you somewhat, if he continues to develop the way he is now, I think it would be hard to find a better match for Hinata''

''There is another thing I could not help but notice, though it may just be my imagination, but does Naruto not look just a little bit too much like a child version of how the Fourth Hokage looked before his demise for it to be a coincident?'' Hizashi questioned.

Silence fell over the room with that statement, before you could physically see the realization dawn on both of the married couple's faces.

''Well I'll be damned, you are probably right'' Hiashi said his face still not having returned to its normal neutral state.

Xx-xX

End of chapter five.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, reviews are welcome!

Flames are not welcome (ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻

-Akabara


	6. Out of the Shadows

AN: Thank you to all those that follow and favorite the story, and a special thanks to anyone taking the time to review it.

Depression is shit.

I am still looking for a beta.

Chapter Six: Out of the Shadows

Out of the Shadow and into the sun  
Dreams of the past as the old ways are done  
Oh there is beauty and surely there is pain  
But we must endure it to live again

Naruto had just finished eating breakfast with Shizue and informing her that he would be spending the evening at the Inuzuka compound before seeing her out, sitting at his kitchen table with a piece of paper and a pen he and written in large letters at the top 'Things I want to learn/focus on' and he was now working on filling out the paper.

'Firstly I want to keep working on my chakra control, I feel and hope that if I can find or create exercises to work with extremely fine chakra control I can gain some more insight into how chakra works, I have noticed my chakra behaves slightly different when I am working with wind nature compared to normal, I am not really sure how it is different, but it feels different and if I can gain further control over my chakra I might be able to tell how and why it is different' Naruto thought as he wrote his first objective on the list.

Chakra Control Mastery

'I guess next world be healing techniques, it is way more fascinating and exciting than I had expected when I started working on it, sadly I can only really study theory since I have no excess to a teacher or practical study since I am not willing to harm myself or others for it. I want to see if I can't get my experimental technique of turning my chakra internally into healing chakra and then circulate it through my system, that would at least help me take care of myself in the field to some degree, depending on how well I can get it to work'

Healing Techniques

'I will not have access to any sort of ninja or illusion techniques until I graduate the academy, I could try and look into sealing, since basic sealing knowledge will be a must and if I can get to a level where I can create a few seals like the storage ones, which is way too convenient to miss out on, that would be helpful in the future' Naruto reasoned.

Sealing

'I guess the last thing I can focus on for now will be my wind affinity, it will at least continue to make my wind ninja techniques stronger, and also if I learn the Rasengan in the future having mastered my wind affinity would help greatly in creating the upgraded version' Naruto thought before adding his last point to the paper.

Nature Affinity

'I will continue to work Martial Arts, but from now on with the Hyuuga and I'll keep to my current exercise plan for now and look into increasing in slightly in the new year'

Leaving his apartment and heading towards an empty training ground, Naruto easily found one since most people were spending the day with family or friends, which he also would later on in the day.

Naruto made a hundred clones setting ten aside to try and come up with some more challenging chakra control exercises, he sent seventy to work on his wind affinity and the remaining twenty he had worked on his Martial Arts by mock sparing.

He himself started exercising, by running, doing pushups, pulls ups, sit-ups and any other exercise he knew off.

Naruto was interrupted an hour into his training by a loud exclamation of ''What a youthful sight, seeing one so young working so hard, I feel truly inspired and my flames of youth rise higher than ever, tell me, young man, what is your name''

Jumping in surprise along with most of his clones, Naruto turned to look at the person who had interrupted him, there was no mistaking it, the person who had shown up was Gai Maito.

''My name is Naruto Uzumaki'' Naruto said, he wanted to say more but Gai interrupted him.

''Yosh, young Naruto, I shall help you ignite your own flames of youth further, by showing you how to fight like a man'' Gai said.

''Uhm, I actually already have someone that teaches me Martial Arts'' Naruto getting annoyed by Gai's loud enthusiasm, but still wanting to be polite.

''No worries my young disciple, I will find no one in Konoha who have mastered Martial Arts to the degree that I have, and if that is not the case, I shall climb the Hokage monuments using only a single finger'' Gai proclaimed.

''Now come at me and show your teacher what you are capable off'' Gai said getting into a fighting stance.

Even though he wanted to yell at the older male to behave like a normal person, Naruto swallowed his annoyance after several moments and decided to accept the help he was being offered, even if he was starting to dislike the person offering, he did not recall Gai and Lee being that annoying to read about.

Getting into his own stance, Naruto started attacking Gai who dodged or redirected all of Naruto's attacks with ease, Gai started giving instructions and encouragements as the two continued, at this point Naruto's clones had gone back to what they were doing before, though the ones that had been practicing Martial Arts decided to go work on his wind affinity as well, since Naruto himself was training physically against Gai.

Naruto's training with Gai ended almost an hour later, Naruto gained a newfound respect for the man and his attitude towards self-improvement, but he had also gained a large dislike for the man's loud, boisterous and very annoying behavior.

He appreciated that Gai had taken the time to help him and as such had thanked him, but he found he would rather not train with the man ever again if possible even if it meant his skills in Martial Arts would be worse off to a small degree.

Which was why he had given a non-committal response when Gai had offered to help him train from time to time, Gai had given him what Naruto suspected but was not quite sure was a suspicious look, before he accepted it and telling Naruto to be well until they met again before leaving.

Naruto walked back to his apartment taking the streets, feeling a bit drained for having trained with Gai, doing his best to ignore the looks that were being sent his way when he was not being ignored, he picked up his pace as it started to annoy him.

Once he was back home, he took a long shower before getting into some casual clothes, and heading to his kitchen for lunch, after eating he had a clone help him into his kimono, he had, had Shizue show him how to put it on.

Making several clones he sat down in his armchair to read, while the clones worked on chakra control in different ways.

Xx-xX

Naruto did not know how much time had passed when there was a knock on his door, getting up and walking up to the door, he opened it and found Tsume standing outside.

''Hey Naruto, you ready to get going?'' She questioned looking him up and down ''You did not have to dress up like that just to come over you know'' Tsume said giving him a grin.

''I know, but it is the first time I celebrate the new year with anyone, so I wanted to make it special'' Naruto responded with a smile, before stepping out of his apartment and locking the door behind him.

''Well let us get going, Kiba is excited to have you over and Hana is looking forward to it as well'' Tsume said as the two started walking side by side towards the Inuzuka compound ''So I heard you saved the Hyuuga Princess, good job, I was quite proud of you when I heard''

Naruto laughed awkwardly in embarrassment not knowing how to respond to that statement ''Aaah. I forgot to prepare a gift'' Naruto exclaimed when he had settled down his embarrassment.

''It is fine Naruto, you do not need to bring a gift, we invited you because we wanted to have you over'' Tsume said with amusement in her voice.

''So how exactly did you end up saving Hinata Hyuuga?'' Tsume questioned curiously about how Naruto had managed it.

''I spotted the cloud ninja leaving the Hyuuga compound with a burlap sack over his shoulder, fearing that he was stealing or kidnapping someone or thing I decided to ambush him, I overwhelmed him with a bunch of clones forcing him to drop the sack, which I picked up and ran away with to hide, in case he made short work of my clones'' Naruto explained, Tsume listened attentively to his story ''When I had found a place to hide I checked to see what was inside the sack, where I found Hinata who cried herself to sleep when she realized she was saved, then I found out my clones had managed to defeat the Cloud ninja and was talking to Lord Hiashi so I carried Hinata to him'' Naruto said finishing his retelling of the episode.

''Only six years old, but you are already accomplishing great things'' Tsume said with a large grin on her face as she ruffled Naruto's hair ''I am proud of you'' she added making Naruto beam at her in happiness.

Even though he tried to not let the citizens of Konoha's attitude towards him get to him, he was keenly aware of their attitude and he had come to have a great dislike for them over his time in the village, but he had also started to greatly appreciate the shows of affection his friends and family, for he could not think of any word other word but family to describe what Kiba, Tsume and Hana meant to him, offered him.

The two continued to talk as they walked to the home of Tsume and her children, once there they settled down with games, snacks and with great happiness the Inuzuka family plus one Uzumaki greeted the new year together.

Xx-xX

Naruto woke up to find himself entangled with the limbs of two other people, who he quickly realized was Kiba and Hana, around them lay the four dogs of the family, Hana's triplets and Tsume's partner.

Hana was currently hugging him to herself and had her legs entangled with his, using their legs to lay against was Kiba who had the head of Tsume's dog on his stomach.

Hearing a stifled chuckle Naruto turned towards the sound, seeing Tsume looking down at them with a grin down at them, Naruto smiled at her while scratching the back of his head with his one free hand.

''You can stay there for a bit and I'll come to get you when breakfast is ready'' Tsume said getting a nod from Naruto in reply.

Lying back down he felt Hana pull him more towards her before she mumbled something he could not hear into her pillow, the action made Naruto keenly aware of the fact that Hana was a girl, a faint red coloured his cheeks for a while before he got it under control.

Any attempt to wriggle out of Hana's embrace either lead to her grabbing onto him tighter or for her to whine in her sleep, so Naruto decided to simply lie there until Tsume came back.

It took long enough for Tsume to return to wake them up that Naruto had started dozing off again, but with Tsume calling them to breakfast they all got up and went to the kitchen.

As they ate they mainly talked about Kiba and Naruto starting at the academy, with Hana telling them what it was like seeing as she was near the end of her stay at the academy.

Naruto told Kiba and Hana about the run-in he had, had with the Cloud nin and his agreement to train martial arts with the Hyuuga clan, this led to Kiba and to some degree Hana pushing him into agreeing to train with them as well.

The three children even ended up training on the field behind the house, Tsume supervised the training, but was not surprised that Naruto quite easily manhandled both of her children, though Hana more so than Kiba seemed to be annoyed by that fact from what Naruto observed, he guessed it was due to the age gap between himself and Hana.

Kiba had just gotten more insistent that Naruto train with him and teach him all the tricks he knew so they could both be the strongest in their class, this sparked an idea in Naruto's mind, if Kiba was to go through advanced training alongside Naruto, then he would be stronger and could beat out Sasuke for the top spot in his graduation class.

The plan made, Naruto agreed with Kiba to train with him twice a week and he invited Hana to join them who with a bit of reluctance decided to agree to join them.

''No need to feel ashamed for losing to Naruto like that Hana'' Tsume said as she came over to the three children who had just made their agreement ''From what I can tell Naruto has been training with help from some really powerful ninja over the last couple of years, his training is more advanced than any training you could hope to get at the academy''

Naruto gave an embarrassed laugh while he had a sheepish expression on his face ''Yeah, I have been getting martial arts training for quite a while now, and I have been studying chakra control and some a lot of theory on my own'' Naruto explained, this seemed to ease Hana's feeling to some degree, cause she soon stated that she would be able to beat Naruto before his birthday, with a look of determination as she stared at Naruto.

Naruto gave a helpless chuckle in acceptance since that was not the outcome he had hoped for, but it seemed better than her being angry at him for some reason.

Naruto spent the rest of the day with the Inuzuka family before going home after dinner to his apartment, as he laid in bed the total silence drove home to him how much he looked forward to when he would have a family of his own he could live with, so with feelings of melancholy Naruto fell asleep that evening.

Xx-xX

Naruto spent the next week focusing only on turning his chakra into healing chakra internally, it was a struggle and he made very little progress towards his goal, but his time was not entirely wasted, during this period he had noticed that his chakra held different properties for a lack of better explanation when it was focused on one task.

As an example now, focused chakra felt warm and energetic, his wind-natured chakra felt sharp and wild, and when he channeled healing chakra it felt calm and vigorous. While he was keenly aware that he was not being very scientific about this discovery he only had his personal experience to go on and no means to objectively observe it.

Naruto decided that it was something he wanted to dive deeper into, he was deeply fascinated by this new, at least to him, discovery about chakra and his focused turn entire towards studying the phenomenon while he worked on a thesis to explain the concept, he had been so eager in his search to know more than he had ended up reading every single book, scroll or another container of knowledge related to chakra theory in the Konoha Library.

His studies were also the reason why he was currently jumping from roof to roof to make it in time for his first day at the academy seeing as he had spent most of the night engulfed in his studies and Shizue had, had a hard time waking him up that morning.

It was, therefore, Naruto barely made it to the gathering of the new students drawing the attention of everyone present as he entered the classroom, students and parents alike turned their attention towards Naruto, who while well dressed, had bags under his eyes and slight bed hair.

Giving a bow and a quick apology Naruto quickly made his way to sit beside Kiba and Tsume who had saved a seat for him. He noticed there were different reactions to his arrival from the parents, all of his friends parents seemed amused as far as he could tell, so did a few other parents but more than half looked at him with disdain or even outright hate in a couple of cases, he did his best to banish his thoughts on the matter from his head so he could focus on listening to the two instructors in the class.

Iruka Umino and Mizuki Miki were to be the instructors for their class, they went over the general information and rules of the academy, the subjects the children would be learning and such.

Having started at the academy, Naruto started to train with Kiba and Hana twice a week at their compound, after which he stay over for dinner, another two days a week after their day at the academy finished he spent with Hinata and her family at the Hyuuga compound training with them, the rest of his time he spent looking into his new passion, his study into the nature of chakra itself and how and why it could be made to behave differently and why the different behavior gave the effects it did.

Naruto, in fact, kept himself so busy he almost missed the fact that most of the ninja's in the village had started treating him differently, and he only found out why when Hiashi had explained to him that his actions in saving Hinata had led to the Hokage being able to negotiate peace between Konoha and Kumo, a fact that had become knowledge amongst the ninja population of Konoha, but had not really spread into the civilian part of the populace, since even if they lived side by side, the ninja of the village in general kept knowledge that related mainly to the ninja populace from being made general knowledge.

End of Chapter Six

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, reviews are welcome!

Flames are not welcome (ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻

-Akabara


	7. Childhood's End

Much love to those that reviewed the story so far and a thank you to those following and favoriting the story.

Still in need of a beta.

Chapter Seven: Childhood's End 

I'd sail across the ocean

I'd walk a hundred miles

If I could make it to the end

Oh Just to see a smile

Xx-xX

To say that Naruto was disappointed by the standards of the academy would be quite the understatement. Naruto hated the slow pace of learning in the academy, more so because he already knew all the things they were going over, while he knew that the reason he hated it so much was because he had studied more than most people if not all the people in Konoha, it failed to dampen his anger at how boring his classes were.

It had gotten to the point that he had started working on his personal project in whatever capacity he could instead of paying attention to the classes, this led to several incidents were Iruka or Mizuki or both scolded him for not paying attention, which at the start he apologized for and told them he already knew what they were teaching, but after the fifth time in two days it had happened, he had raised his voice and told them in no uncertain terms that when they decided to teach something useful that he would pay attention to what they taught and that they should focus their attention on the students that needed or wanted their help instead of him.

This had earned him four scolding's, the first had been from Shizue when she had found a note in his home state he was misbehaving and antagonistic towards the instructors, which had led to Hiashi and his wife followed by Tsume scolding him, he had tried to plead his case, but they had not given him any chance to.

Naruto had the following day been called to the Hokage's office, where he had once more been told of for his behavior and been told to focus on his lessons even if he already knew most or all of it and found it boring.

Naruto had with this episode experienced the first time where he felt that the adults in his life was being unreasonable towards him and not allowing him to justify himself due to his age, due to his anger Naruto had not spoken a lot with the adults and even avoid dinner with them for a week following the scolding's.

During that week Naruto had decided to simply send a clone to the academy since he still found the lessons useless and refused the waste his own time on it when he could be working on improving himself or learning something useful.

After that week Naruto started eating dinner at the Hyuuga and Inuzuka homes again, but apparently it was clear to the adults that something had changed in the relations between themselves and Naruto, though Naruto only found out he had not hidden it as well as he had hoped when Tsume sat him down one day for a talk.

''Naruto, as you probably know, I don't like to beat around the bush so I'll just come out a say it'' Tsume started as the two were seated across from each other in the kitchen of the Inuzuka home ''Clearly something has changed between you and the adults in your life since the incident with the academy, and I would like to know why and what you think could be done to change it, cause it is clear to us that something has changed''

Naruto first looked away as the pushed down the anger that surfaced when he felt like he was being spoken down to, taking a deep breath to settle himself he turned back towards Tsume and looked straight into her eyes ''I find it kind of ironic that you now want to listen to me and have me explain myself so to speak, since when I wanted to do so, you weren't interested in listening to me'' Naruto said only the slight frown on his face hinting at his state of mind.

Tsume's eyebrows raised in surprise which was also visible on the rest of her face, Naruto just continued to stare at her, the frown on his face lessening over time until his face became neutral.

''While I at the time did not know that the others had scolded you as well, I still stand by what I said'' Tsume stated her voiced raised slightly before continuing ''You do not have any parents at home to help guide you between what is wrong and right, and as a child, like all children you need that guidance to turn out well adjusted for society''

''I am more than well aware of the fact that I do not have any parents, thank you very much. But you are making a fundamental mistake in your assumptions'' Naruto said he voice increasing in volume as alongside Tsume's

''Oh yeah, and what is it I am making a fundamental mistake about, cause from what I can see you are acting like a petulant child'' Tsume said anger starting to be visible in her voice and on her face, and not only due to the volume of her voice going up.

''You are assuming I am still a child, I haven't been a child since I realized what the looks all the villages gave me meant, since I realized that I was nothing to this village but unwanted, unloved, hated, despised, do you have any idea what it does to a person at the age of four that the general consent of those around you is that the world would be a better place if you just died or disappeared? That your mere existence could drive people to such feelings? That even though you try your best to not let it get to you and you do your best to focus on the few people that accept you, but the knowledge and feelings are always there in the back of your mind gnawing away at your happy moments? To then have all the adults in your life refuse to listen to your attempts to explain why you reacted in a certain way because they see you as a child acting out!''

Naruto ranted angrily, with tears running down his cheeks yet he still refused to look away from Tsume, who ended up looking away when Naruto finished, she now had tears in her eyes herself, after a few seconds she seemed to make a decision as she stood up, picked up Naruto and sat him on her laps while hugging him to her.

''I am sorry'' She whispered softly, Naruto could hear a voice trembling slightly, so he decided to return the hug, the two sat like that for a while before Tsume spoke again.

''While I am clearly not perfect, no one is, I will try my best to always listen to you if anything comes up in the future, but I would like to ask you to come and find someone to talk to when things bother you, it doesn't have to be me of cause but I will always be willing to lend an ear, but you should also know that if you don't tell me, I won't know, after all, I am not a Yamanaka''

Naruto gave a small chuckle while nodding against her shoulder ''Please don't share this with anyone else'' Naruto said and even to himself he sounded vulnerable at that moment.

''I promise'' Tsume said before planting a kiss on the top of his head, getting a small smile out of the blond ninja to be.

Xx-xX

It was not until half a year into Naruto and Kiba's time at the academy that they started teaching practical lessons, on those days Naruto decided to suffer through spending a day at the academy on the off chance his clone got hit hard enough to dispel it.

To the surprise of many of their classmates, though not Kiba and Hinata, Naruto dominated that physical aspect of their training, just like he had come to dominate any test they were given on the lessons they took, even Iruka found Naruto a challenge due to his unorthodox fighting style.

Naruto's domination of the class work had earned him the ire of several of the civilian students along with a black-haired Uchiha who was convinced that his clan made him superior to those around him, at least his arrogance gave others that impression.

Though Naruto would never admit it, he took a lot of pleasure in seeing his friend if not brother Kiba proving fast enough that he was now performing as well as the Uchiha, Naruto had even found a way to motivate Kiba to take some of the more literary aspects of his education more serious by rewarding Kiba with tips or tricks he could use to improve his performance against the Uchiha when the two was made to practice with each other, which happened frequently since Kiba and Hinata were the only other students physically around Sasuke's level of skill and physique.

Iruka had taken to rope Naruto into helping his fellow students since Naruto had proved himself good at facilitating his fellow students' improvement, though this also caused some sparks in the class since only the children of Konoha ninja did not bristle at Naruto when he tried to help them.

The class had actually gotten to a point where the two halves did not play well with each other, and the civilian students hard formed cliques that tried to bully non-civilian students with superior numbers, it had even gotten so bad Naruto and Kiba had overheard Tsume curse about insufferable civilians with no knowledge of reality.

Iruka and Mizuki had tried several times to try and bridge the gap between the two student bodies, but the civilian's children remained unwilling to associate with Naruto, while the children of non-civilians were unwilling to break up relations with Naruto, looking down on the civilian children and in turn their parents for the skewered opinion of Naruto.

It was not only in Naruto's class there was a divide between the people of Konoha, but Naruto had also noticed that there were more altercations between Uchiha clan members and non-members, or at least he saw a lot more happen. He saw one at least once a week and it was clear to Naruto that the rift forming between the Uchiha and the rest of Konoha was not being mended as the Uchiha had started to mainly interact with the rest of the city as its police force, a police force that seemed rather prone to escalating conflict rather than solving it peacefully.

But while Naruto did spare these situations some consideration he did not see anything he could reasonably do without putting himself in a compromised situation and that was not something he was currently willing to do, given that even any decent Chuunin, of which Konoha had an abundance, could take him out.

Instead, he kept his focus on his work into discovering as much about chakra as he possibly could, he had managed to progress rather well on his thesis, at least in his own opinion.

He had worked out that chakra changed qualities depending on which state it was, so while chakra was technically capable of performing techniques no matter its state, at least in his tests of having used the different state he could get his chakra into and performing his wind technique and clone technique along with his chakra control exercises, he had found the closer the state his chakra was in compared to what he wanted it to perform, the less chakra was needed, so when he tried to perform his Air Bullet, a technique that created a ball of condensed air. With his chakra in wind nature state compared to healing chakra state, there was a huge difference in performance and the chakra needed to perform the technique.

He had also found that chakra, which was a mix of two different sources of energy or power, that being mental and physical, took of different aspects depending on how much each source made up for the creation of the chakra, Naruto had learned that Healing chakra, benefitted far more from drawing on the physical aspects than the mental aspects of the energy which had come to no surprise for Naruto, though he found that his shadow clones performed the best when they got an equal distribution of both.

This was something Naruto had to keep in mind because he noticed that for the most part, the Kyuubi was releasing physically charged chakra into his system, so he needed to balance that out by drawing more on his mental energy.

These revelations had also helped immensely with his chakra control, to the point where he now had a functional self-restoration technique, it effectively flooded his entire system with healing chakra, which he for a lack of better wording programmed to focus on restoring his body to optimal status.

The best thing about the technique was he could draw heavily on the leaked chakra from Kyuubi for this since he only needed to change the state of chakra since it was already heavily tilted towards the physical aspect of chakra.

Xx-xX

Naruto could not help the smile on his face, he had just gotten Hana to teach him how to do the replacement and transformation technique that the academy taught, though he was not supposed to be learning it for at least another year.

All it had taken was a promise to help her figure out what her elemental nature was and afterward a way to train it, which was why Naruto quickly took put a small piece of paper and presented it to Hana, instructing her to channel chakra into it.

The paper turned to dust a crumbled away ''It would appear you have an affinity for earth, earth is the best element for defensive techniques both for personal protection but also the negation of wide area techniques, its weakness is lightning nature which focuses on penetration power, while it is strong against water nature'' Naruto explained before he gave the basic instructions for training earth nature which involved turning a leaf to stone.

Naruto happily joined Hana in the training since he was curious as to how earth nature felt, but even after a week, with Hana having shown some progress, Naruto had proved unable to grasp it exactly only getting the leaf to turn slightly harder, but he had not been able to feel exactly what state his chakra took on when doing so.

When Kiba had found out what Naruto had taught Hana he had asked, repeatedly until Naruto agreed, to find out what nature affinity he had, turned out he had a fire affinity, leading Naruto to teach guide him to making embers appear in his leaf until the entire thing was burned.

When Tsume had found them for the first time sitting in her yard practicing their affinity, she had at first thought they were doing chakra control exercises, but when she found out they were practicing their affinity, she had first sputtered for several seconds about brats doing stuff to advanced for them, before giving a hearty laugh and telling Naruto not to go to overboard in what he taught them, to which he had responded that he only knew two techniques, one which fit neither Kiba or Hana's affinity and the second which neither would have any use for given its heavy chakra requirement.

''At the rate you are going kiddo, you will end up graduating from the academy before Hana'' Tsume had replied with laughter in her voice, while Hana sputtered slightly with indignation, which turned into a pout when she remembered she was being taught something normally not learned until far later into one's ninja career by Naruto, at least that was what Naruto assumed happen from the half pout half glare he was sent by the older girl.

Xx-xX

Naruto was currently panting lightly from the effort he had put into the part he had just had with Hinata, the girl had improved at an astounding rate, even her parents were impressed and pleased by the grown of their eldest daughter, Hinata on the other hand was lying on her back on the ground drawing deep breaths in order to try and stabilize the rapid breathing.

Both children were covered in sweat, and had a few forming bruises, though Naruto quickly took care of his own but triggering this self-healing technique, giving a sigh of relief as it took away the aches and pains he was feeling from their spar.

He walked over to Hinata and kneeled beside her before he started healing her bruises, the girl blushed slightly as he moved he hand around her body hovering barely an inch over her clothing and skin, though she too gave a sigh of relief as his treatment took away the discomfort she was feeling.

''Thank you, Naruto'' Hinata said, ever the soft-spoken girl.

''You are very welcome Hinata and thank you for the spar. At the rate you are improving you will be beating me before new year'' Naruto said giving her a happy smile.

Hinata blushed slightly at the compliment before giving Naruto a happy smile at the praise ''I don't think I would be improving so fast if you had not told father you thought a more flexible variation of the Gentle Fist would not fit me more'' Hinata replied getting a bashful look from Naruto.

''Even if I suggested something I thought would suit you better, it is your hard work and effort that has led to your current skill'' Naruto said before giving the girl a pat on the head, which had her blushing slightly again.

''I see you two are enjoying your time together, how did your spar go?'' The voice of Hiashi called out drawing the children attention.

If Naruto did not know better, he would have thought the older male had a glint in his left eye, but with a mental shake of the head he cleared that thought away

''It went very well, your daughter is very gifted at her current style and her hard work shows through with the amount of improvement she is making'' Naruto said, getting a nod of agreement from Hiashi.

''Well the two of you better come along, dinner will be ready soon and afterward, I would like to continue our lessons Naruto'' Hiashi stated before turning to walk back towards his home, the two children swiftly followed him both giving verbal acknowledgments.

End of Chapter Seven

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, reviews are welcome!

Flames are not welcome (ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻

-Akabara


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